The Purpose of the System

By Clint Westgard

The System guides, the System protects, and they will heed its call.

The habitat appears defenseless, but is it? As soon as their shuttle docks things begin to go awry. There are strange gaps in their communication, strange odors that no one can place. But the System has given them their orders and has an explanation for everything.

That explanation is called into question when members of their team start to go missing. Those remaining have to ask themselves the unthinkable: is the System somehow out to get them?

A science fiction story about a mission gone wrong in the vast depths of space.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lost Quarter Books
• Release date: May 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781928035145

Clint Westgard

Clint Westgard is the author of The Shadow Men Trilogy and the science fiction epic The Sojourner Cycle, the first volume of which, The Forgotten, was published in 2015. In addition, he has published a work of historical fantasy set in colonial Peru, The Masks of Honor, and a retelling of the Minotaur legend, The Trials of the Minotaur. Clint Westgard lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Book preview

THE PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEM

CLINT WESTGARD

The Purpose of the System

Published by Lost Quarter Books

May, 2017

The Purpose of the System by Clint Westgard is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  

ISBN: 978-1-928035-14-5

Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com  

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE PURPOSE OF THE SYSTEM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DISPATCH ONE

DISPATCH TWO

DISPATCH THREE

DISPATCH FOUR

DISPATCH FIVE

DISPATCH SIX

DISPATCH SEVEN

DISPATCH EIGHT

DISPATCH NINE

DISPATCH TEN

DISPATCH ELEVEN

DISPATCH TWELVE

DISPATCH THIRTEEN

DISPATCH FOURTEEN

DISPATCH FIFTEEN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ALSO BY CLINT WESTGARD

DISPATCH ONE

The air hisses, like a sigh expiring, as the airlocks link. Hidden gears turn, interlocking, the vessel and the habitat system speaking to each other, and at last the alarm sounds, notifying us that the doors are opening. The alarm continues to pulse, the light above the joined airlocks blinking red in unison with it. I adjust my metabolism, speeding it up from slow time, trying to time it so I reach my normal rates as the door opens and I have to move forward. I need to conserve my energy. There is no telling when I will be able to replenish myself.

Objective: CNS. Habitat A1.

A map of the habitat materializes in my mind as the thought is given voice. I see our path through the habitat to where the CNS is situated. Our target. The going will be easy until the first junction with the outer ring. After that, we will need some luck. Luck, the System's Trojans and malware, and the System itself to guide us.

Only six of us exit the vessel, not the planned twenty-five. Those left behind did not emerge from the depths of stasis when the System alerted us to our imminent arrival. No information had been offered as to