Hypervisor One : A d.o.mai.n Short Story Collection: The d.o.mai.n Universe, #1.5

By Christopher Godsoe

A collection of two short stories set in the d.o.mai.n Universe, taking place after the events of pre://d.o.mai.n.

The Zealot: Six months ago, Tobin Maldovan was in charge of a manhunt for an enigmatic hacker named ATLAS. With ATLAS having escaped his jurisdiction, Tobin had nothing left but to follow his estranged wife to California, seeking reassignment at the West Coast cyberterrorism field office. His reputation precedes him, and soon he is pursuing a dangerous cyberterrorist the media has taken to calling "The Zealot." As usual, Tobin pours himself into his work, but things change when the work becomes personal in ways that he never would have imagined.

LEGION Protocol: Zane is a member of a group of cybernetically augmented FBI Agents, the "Holmes Initiative", named after the great fictional detective. His newest case brings him face to face with a comatose body hooked up to an array of machines doing far more than keeping the body alive. With no clues to go on, he must insert his consciousness into it's rapidly deteriorating mind. What Zane finds will cause him to question the existence of everything.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christopher Godsoe
• Release date: Aug 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386887232

Christopher Godsoe

Christopher Godsoe lives in central Maine with his son. He’s spent the majority of his life dreaming of the future and imagining some of the amazing gadgets and technology it will bring.  In his early 30’s, he figured out how to add characters, drama, and plot twists to all that technology and shared what he’d done with others. Several of them enjoyed it a great deal, and that initial validation convinced him to keep writing. He primarily writes science fiction, with a focus on the philosophical implications of artificial reality, but dabbles in other genres when he feels he has something interesting to say. He spends his free time cooking, gaming, watching movies, and coming up with excuses to not exercise. He enjoys making things with his hands, fixing things when they break, and wondering why he has extra parts left over afterwards. 

Book preview

Introduction

As these stories are part of a larger picture, perhaps it’s best if I provide a primer for where they fit a midst the greater timeline of the d.o.mai.n universe.

If you wish to read the continuing story as it happens chronologically, they should be read in this order:

1: pre://d.o.mai.n

This is the first novel in the series, and reading the stories in this book will spoil a few minor plot points if you haven’t first read d.o.mai.n.

2: hypervisor one

The two stories you are currently holding. They serve as a bridge from pre://d.o.mai.n to the upcoming second novel in this series, Infinite Loop.

That out of the way, these stories allowed me to set things up, tie up loose ends, and preface events to come. These stories are not required reading to understand the events of the main series, as the events will be referenced as needed, but they allow for an expanded universe, stories initially intended to happen outside of the written page that wouldn’t let go. When Infinite Loop started to stall out in my mind, and the opportunity presented itself to submit stories for the UnCommon Anthologies, the move dictated itself.

And without further adieu, on with the show.

-Christopher Godsoe

6/2/2018

The Zealot

––––––––

You know, this would go a whole lot faster if you'd talk a little.

Maybe for you, Dru. But the more attention I pay to you, the less I pay to what's going on out there. Tobin Maldovan gestured towards the windshield of the land cruiser they were staked out in. We're here to find out information. This isn't a date.

Don't be condescending.

I don't know any other way to be, Dru. I told you, I don't want to talk about my personal life. And since we're partners, and I don't have any information about our case that you don't, I don't see that we have a great deal to discuss. I hate small talk. I'd rather we do the job we were sent here to do. Is that all right?

Dru hated not knowing anything about him. It was hard enough for her to overlook his cybernetic eyes, glinting moonlight as he turned back to the display panel on their cruiser, but to not have any real glimpse of humanity from him made her feel like she was working with an android.

She tried not to think about the bottle of alcohol waiting in her freezer, how much she missed the bite of it against her throat. Not given to confession, she wouldn't admit that the reason she was trying to get him to talk wasn't because she thought he was interesting, but because she wanted the distraction. Needed the distraction.

Look, there he is.

Tobin was already out the door in the moment it took her to reel in her thoughts.

Dru snatched her gun from the center console and dashed after him. She hadn't seen the man as Tobin had, but owing to his augmented vision, that wasn't much of a surprise. Tobin Maldovan was cold, had a reputation for being ruthless, but had instincts Dru had learned to respect in their six months together as partners.

By the time she caught up to him, crouching behind a door frame with a decent line of sight to the office building on the opposing side of the street, her breath broke from her lungs in ragged gasps. Tobin looked at her with an expression of disappointment, and she didn't bother to defend herself. She was a police officer, not an ex Special Forces commando who continued to train as though anticipating a call to active deployment at any moment.

Dru scanned the building, every window lit in the fluorescent blue-white psychologists recommended for maximum productivity. People strode with purpose along every floor, driven more by the prospect of unemployment than the choices in lighting, the third shift of some global technology empire that never slept.

Her SideARM wirelessly tagged most of them, their identities broadcasting through an encrypted wireless signal for law enforcement and rescue personnel. Translucent rectangles hovered over their heads, a menu with additional information sliding down if she focused on any of them for more than a moment. Far too many were augmented for this to be a random selection by The Zealot.

A man walked near the windowed front wall of the building, and Dru decided to pass the time by reading up on his augmentation. Tobin could deride her for reading a magazine when they were supposed to be paying attention, but he would have no way of seeing her access the information on Mr. Larry Johnson's cerebral web implant. The implant, according to the file, was a primitive design, one that had been implanted in his youth as a means to cure his seizures. The implant had been disabled when he reached adulthood, but it still broadcasted its signature, shouting to anyone with the clearance to hear and betraying his privacy for the rest of his life.

Most of his coworkers had similar body modifications, the vast majority of them surgeries to correct some deficiency or restore function lost due to an accident. What a broken people we must have been, she thought, before science allowed us to cheat nature and fate. These people just wanted to live their lives, and the same implants that allowed them to do so came with hooks, legal provisions Dru had a hard time justifying at that moment.

She looked away, acutely aware that delving into people's lives in order to alleviate her boredom constituted an abuse of her