S.E.L.I.A.'s Promise

By Christina McMullen

In the near future, a hyper-intelligent supercomputer promises to usher in a new era for humanity. But instead of utopia, the brilliant machine discovers an asteroid on an unavoidable collision course with Earth. Is this the end? Or will SELIA uphold its promise for a better and brighter tomorrow?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christina McMullen
• Release date: Jul 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781393047643

Christina McMullen

Christina McMullen is a science fiction and fantasy author who dreams of flying cars, electric sheep, and one day having the means to adopt all of the world's rescue dogs. When she isn't writing, Christina enjoys travel, vegan cooking, modern and classical art (she fancies herself to be a somewhat competent artist as well as author), and of course, reading. 

Book preview

1

I NEVER GAVE MUCH THOUGHT to the end of the world. Why would I? Dwelling on some abstract eventuality that would happen at some point in the impossibly far future was pointless and terrifying. I lived my life to the fullest, secure in the knowledge that I would be long dead and turned to dust before Planet Earth gave up the ghost.

Or so I thought.

Even with the rumblings of war—which seemed to be a daily occurrence ever since I could remember—I never worried that a nuclear strike would bring about the end of life as we know it. After all, if the fallout was as terrible as our teachers said it would be, wouldn’t it be just as devastating to us as whoever we decided to bomb into oblivion? Perhaps my confidence was childish naïveté, but I could not fathom even the most ruthless of world leaders being so bent on destroying their enemies that they would sacrifice all life, including their own.

No, the end of the world simply wasn’t something that ever crossed my mind. Not even last year, when SELIA—the world’s most sophisticated and intelligent computer ever created—discovered a large and devastating asteroid on a collision course with Earth. After all, how often had I heard the very same reports from scientists nearly every year since my childhood? If they were to be believed, space was chock full of random bits of rock and all of it was headed right for us.

Not a single one of those asteroids came within striking distance. Most of the so-called threats were so small they fell apart as soon as they reached our atmosphere. The others, the big ones that were supposed to take out whole