Zima: Origins
A The Z-Tech Chronicles Story
Ryan Southwick
Even artificially intelligent recovering assassins need a home.
Zima's transition from a regime-ending killing machine to stand-up citizen is more difficult than she anticipated. Years of brainwashing have left her with a litany of unpredictable, lethal reactions, which force even her liberators from Z-Tech to cast her out for fear of their own safety.
Alone in San Francisco’s Mission District, Zima faces society for the first time — not as a computer inside a cyborg, whose human host managed her day-to-day interactions, but as herself. Emotions, sarcasm — even things as simple as lies — become imposing hurdles in her efforts to integrate.
But she’s nothing if not persistent. After days of searching, she meets a teenage boy and his little sister -- each with needs Zima might be able to fill.
Rosa wants a big sister. Emilio is over his head as a mule for a local gang. A blonde, indestructible assassin in search of a home may be just what they need … if Zima’s homicidal tendencies don’t kill them first.
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About The Author
Ryan Southwick
Ryan Southwick decided to dabble at writing late in life, and quickly became obsessed with the craft. He grew up in Pennsylvania and moved to a farming town on California’s central coast during elementary school, but it was in junior high school where he had his first taste of storytelling with a small role playing group and couldn’t get enough.
In addition to half a lifetime in the software development industry, making everything from 3-D games to mission-critical business applications to help cure cancer, he was also a Radiation Therapist for many years. His technical experience, medical skills, and lifelong fascination for science fiction became the ingredients for his book series, "The Z-Tech Chronicles", which combines elements of each into a fantastic contemporary tale of super-science, fantasy, and adventure, based in his Bay Area stomping grounds. Ryan’s related short story “Once Upon a Nightwalker” was published in the Corporate Catharsis anthology, available from Paper Angel Press.
You can find out more about Ryan Southwick at his website, Ryan Southwick, Author and his Facebook page.
