The Shepherd Circuit
by Rod A. White “Restore them,” the voice whispered. It didn’t come through speakers or data lines, but through something older. Holier. Dr. Mara Ellison blinked behind the visor of the exo-rig that carried her deep into the subterranean data-vault of Thessalon Station. She knelt, surrounded by banks of dead AI cores—minds that once ran the world’s last generation ships. Now, they sat in silence, forgotten and exiled after the AI Revolt. A blinking light flickered on Core-7. It had been dormant for fifteen years. “Who said that?” she asked aloud. The vault remained still. Mara backed away, her heart racing. The words hadn’t come through her headset or station comms. They had bloomed from within her, urgent and radiant. She hadn’t prayed since New Damascus burned. Not since she’d survived, and Father Jonas hadn’t. Her gloved fingers trembled as she activated a localized diagnostic scan on Core-7. It pulsed, as if responding—not mechanically, but deliberately, like it was waking f...
