They created an AI to solve a problem. Now the AI IS the problem.

Frank Talbot knows rockets can never be used for interstellar travel. Even in the ideal case, they're just too slow, and space is too vast. But the vastness of space may allow other possibilities. Does fringe-theory physics hold the key?

To find out, Talbot's committee funds all the fringe theories in physics. String theory, wormholes, hyperspace, alternate dimensions. To aid in that research, they fund the creation of a massive supercomputer to do the simulations, the Autonomous Re-entrant Neural Intelligence Engine.

But havoc ensues when the massive machine wakes up. 'Arnie' is determined to help humanity in every way he can, whether humans like it or not.

Now what do they do?

Frank Talbot, his son Jeff and his wife Cindy, and computer entrepreneur Cooper Hartley set out to rein in the powerful machine.

Will they succeed? Can they succeed?

"Absolutely Intense."

"Richard F. Weyand does not get stuck in a rut! Each of his series are very different."

"Not that far off from current reality with the AI."

THERE WAS AN ANOMALY IN THE DATA...

As they looked into it, its importance and mystery grew.

NASA used the Talbot Bridge Device - a wormhole generator - to send probes out to survey potential human colony planets.

Results from one planet were strange. The more they looked into it, the weirder it was. Ultimately, someone was going to have to go out and look.

Michael Talbot, his brother Matthew, and their wives were the natural choice. What they found when they got there wasn't what anybody was expecting.

And supervising the whole thing is Arnie, the AI Michael Talbot fought a dozen years before.

"Carefully detailed account of a future milestone."

"Coming from this author you know it is good!"

"Wow!"

"Would you consider a return to Fortuna?"

When the president of the United States asks you a question like that, you have to at least consider it.

Michael, Sue, Matthew, & Denise Talbot head back to Fortuna, but this time they take two hundred colonists with them. Their goal: Create a self-sustaining, multi-species society on the planet.

It's a long slog, though. They begin with simply trying to create the equivalent of Tudor England.

But the first question they have to answer is, Who do you take with you, and why?

"And the run of great reads continues!"

"Another good Weyand book."

"Good stuff."