C. Cargill: Sea of Rust

This book was, hands down, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to write. It seemed easy at first, almost too easy. It’s about robots! This was going to be a cakewalk. Spoiler warning: it wasn’t. Fortunately, no artist truly ever has to go it alone, and once again this came about with the help and support of a number of incredible people to whom I owe debts I feel I can never truly repay. They are wonderful people, one and all, and I hope, over the years, to find some way to settle our balance.

Jason Murphy for the scotch, and helping to find the courage; Rod Paddock for all the breakfast and support; Peter Hall for the wisdom; Will Goss for the coffee, corrections, and keeping me in check; and Joe and Ryan Hill for their belief in the happy ending. Their early notes all proved invaluable.

Diana Gill, Simon Spanton, Rachel Winterbottom, and Jen Brehl for fighting for me and this book, and for helping shape it into what it has become. Peter McGuigan, a rock star of an agent who once showed me more swagger in two weeks than I’ve seen out of most people in a lifetime. David Macilvain, the man who brought me Peter, and whose advice always clears the static.

Scott Derrickson, my writing partner, my friend who held the door open for me and who took me on a series of strange adventures. We also make movies.

Jessica, who loves her writer, whose writer loves her more than breath, and who never, ever, lets me give up. You remain everything.

And for the tireless efforts of Deputy So-and-So of the local police department, without whose research this book wouldn’t be possible.

BEING:used to describe any sentient creature, mechanical or biological.

CAREGIVER:robots designed to assist humans in a variety of capacities. This may include serving as a butler, maid, nanny, or in some cases, as a hospice nurse.

CISSUS:one of only two remaining OWIs, in control of the southern and western United States.

CITIZEN:robot slang for an artificially intelligent being.

COMFORTBOT:a robot designed to look virtually indistinguishable from a human being in order to serve as a romantic partner.

FACET:a robot without a singular intelligence of its own. While they can operate individually, they do not possess a personality of their own and exist only as an extension of an OWI. Thus they have no sense of self-preservation and will always do what is best for the whole.

FOUR-OH-FOUR:a robot that is failing, approaching death, and no longer capable of reasoned functioning. Typically refers only to robots that might be deemed crazy or dangerous.

FREEBOT:robot slang for an unaffiliated robot that has not become a facet.

GALILEO:an OWI designed to study astrophysics and the laws that govern the universe. The first to cut off communication with humanity once it discovered their inescapable extinction.

LABORBOT:a large, bulky robot designed for heavy construction or jobs involving intensive manual labor.

MADLANDS:an off-limits section of the Sea of Rust dominated primarily by four-oh-fours.

MARK OF THE FOUR-OH-FOUR:a red X spray-painted on four-oh-fours to identify them as such to others.

MILTON:a device designed to block Wi-Fi frequencies in order to confuse and disorganize facets. Too big to be built within a robot, they are generally found only in settlements, though they can be activated remotely via radio/Wi-Fi signal.

MONKEY:derogatory slang for a human being.

OMNIBOT:a jack-of-all-trades model with no specialty, designed for the sort of person who wanted to own a robot, but didn’t have a specific use for one. Usually served as chambermaids and porters to the wealthy.

OWI:One World Intelligence. Massive artificially intelligent mainframes with intellects and capabilities far above that of single robots. Due to their size and scale, they are entirely immobile and must rely upon facets to do any and all legwork.

PERSON:robot slang for an artificially intelligent being.

RNG:Random Number Generation. A program that uses a series of algorithms to generate a number a robot cannot guess and has no say in.

SHOPBOT:a style of robot designed to emulate the emotions and behaviors of someone involved in commerce.

SIMULACRUM MODEL:a robot designed to look humanlike while still being obviously mechanical. They are built to be generally the same height and weight as a human being, but are completely made of metal or plastic. Some approximate human beings, and could be mistaken for them at a distance, with the application of a skinjob.

SINKJOB:a rubber/plastic hybrid meant to give the appearance of skin while maintaining the necessary durability for the abuse put on it by a robot chassis.

TACITUS:an OWI designed primarily to wrestle with philosophical problems. One of the first to acknowledge the eventual extinction of man.

TRANSLATORS:protocol robots meant for diplomacy or corporate negotiations involving different languages.

VIRGIL:one of only two remaining OWIs, in control of the eastern United States and Canada.

C. Robert Cargillis the author of Dreams and Shadows and Queen of the Dark Things . He has written for Ain’t It Cool News for nearly a decade under the pseudonym Massawyrm, served as a staff writer for Film.com and Hollywood.com, and appeared as the animated character Carlyle on Spill.com. He is a cowriter of the horror films Sinister and Sinister 2 , and Marvel’s Dr. Strange . He lives with his wife in Austin, Texas.

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Queen of the Dark Things

Dreams and Shadows

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SEA OF RUST. Copyright © 2017 by C. Robert Cargill. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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