Firing Henry

ebook A Powers That Be Short Story, Book 2 · The Powers That Be

By John Hopkins

cover image of Firing Henry

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Watson, a disillusioned cog in the corporate gristmill where youthful aspirations are ground to dust, verges on a dreaded decade milestone working for the Kobayashi Corporation. The Powers That Be shell company manufactures humanoid robots with a mission statement reading like an unveiled threat: Replacing humans with non-humans in every imaginable walk of life.

Despite himself, Watson excelled at his headcount chopping job, clearing away mortal souls clinging to relevancy so the robots can assume their positions and perform the job, any job, a zillion times better. Exhibiting a cold lack of empathy while firing inconsolable humans earned Watson the nickname, Terminator. With his vaunted reputation as a fait accompli, his wicked boss volunteers his services for an off-world assignment that will either vault him out of his dead-end job or send him to an awful and painful death. The next thing the former Space Force cadet knows, he is strapped into an autonomous ride to a defunct space station on a suicidal mission to retire Henry VIII, an obsolete hulk of an android that somehow developed a mind of its own.

Their meeting amongst the stars transforms into a pitted battle of wits culminating with a heart-pounding escape while learning to master one's own fate.

Firing Henry