The Lonely Quest of Scout 752

By David Masselink

What if future rescues in space are complicated by the presence of hostile opponants? Messages will be intercepted. Ships can be detected. Sophisticated artificial intellegences are still susceptible to hacking -- inquisition, suggestion, coercion. A human being has no place here.

What is needed is a simple AI, a tiny spaceship, an single-minded mission. Two of those are easy; but how do you build an AI basic enough to get the job done without betraying the mission?

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Masselink
• Release date: May 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781370366255

David Masselink

David Masselink is a writer. He figured he couldn't make a living writing in Prince Edward Island, so he moved west. For many years, he earned a living in Los Angeles, and had no time to write. So he invented an hour at the beginning of the day, writes short stories, and dreams of moving east where the days are a little longer.

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The Lonely Quest of Scout 752

by David Masselink

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 David Masselink

A magnificent battleship disrobed itself of spacebend, catapulted probe D-SCOUT 1914 752 into a quest, and vanished with her fleet into spacebend once more. Scout, she whispered, Do not fail me.

In the vast loneliness of Out There, three tiny engines pulsed. Scout 752 soared on sturdy wings toward glittering and smoldering war debris in the distance. Its small mind held no mission data that an enemy might extract. It knew only Analogy and adaptability: this knight had thirty days to find the princess imprisoned in the Lone Tower.

Scout, the little probe vowed silently, would not fail.

Skirting the occasional still-bleeding wreck amid the war debris, Scout 752 dutifully sent a message, Mother, I reached the war zone. Here and there, myriad ghosts whispered madness into the ether. Occasionally, a voice cried out above the burbling hiss as some mortal abandoned self and soul to join the final dance. Not one, however, spoke Scout’s name.

Mother birthed a thousand probes in that battleground. She named, equipped, and sent