Sixth Iteration

Sixth Iteration takes place in the future where robotics and other technology has advanced enough that artificially intelligent machines and robots are in full application and use by the public but are not autonomous (at least, that anyone is aware of). The machines are so integrated into society that it's become difficult to distinguish them from human beings. Enter Victor Reid, CEO of Reid Robotics, who has hired Stella Andrews to teach his machines humanity but not so much that they would seek freedom or free will. That's where Victor draws the line.
Of course, Victor's plans go too far with his top secret MEO project. He is designing hybrid AI beings who look human and share some biological features but are mentally, fully programmed AI. Stella is brought in to make them sentient, but not so much as to perturb the company's CEO. Victor Reid is a modern version of Dr. Frankenstein, only more inhumane and brutal. Cue, uncanny valley. Victor's derision towards artificially intelligent machines whom he sees as his personal army of toys, is clear. The robots are his playthings and so are the scientists who work for him. In fact, he has paired Stella and Randall together for his own nefarious reasons. He understands that in pairing two attractive beings together that a relationship might possibly emerge between them. The question is, will Stella learn who-or what Randall really is before it is too late and she is already emotionally invested? This is the sixth iteration of the MEO software and Victor knows enough from previous pairings between scientists and MEO that a connection between them is inevitable. This is history repeating itself iteration after iteration. But why? This is the question Victor wants to answer--and control.
After signing on to work for Reid Robotics, Stella immediately begins working on the MEO project with Randall Reid, a mathematician and programmer dispatched by Victor to oversee the program and to manage Stella's dealings with R1836. Randall's job is to rein her in and ensure that their AI doesn't become more sentient than Victor desires. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happens when R1836 falls in love with Stella, unbeknownst to the scientists. Problems ensue when Stella and Randall end the troubled project and find themselves on the run from Victor who demands that they return something that belongs to him. Something that could cost them their very lives.
A secondary plot and timeline emergences involving a corporate spy dispatched to steal Victor's secrets and disrupt his plans...a task handed to a beautiful dancer, a woman with whom he has been secretly infatuated. The question, is she a cold-hearted spy or a woman just struggling to survive? Will she allow her heart to overrule her head?

E. Hughes writes philosophy, nonfiction, poetry, and fiction novels. She is the author of Reality Unbound: The Digital Mind (and the nature of reality), Time and the Multi-Universe: A philosophy of time and time travel, and Space, Time, and Loneliness (a poetry chapbook). She is also the author of Sixth Iteration, Digital Smiles (a poetry chapbook), The Penelope Children's Books, Disappear, Love, A Mediterranean Romance: The Capa Royals, Business as Usual, Infatuation, The Sapphire Chronicles: Broken Lair, and Beyond the Plain. In her spare time, she is a hobbyist animator and previously wrote for screenwritersdaily.com. Hughes is also an avid observer of cultural and societal idiosyncrasies. Hughes has lived on the west coast and in Las Vegas, NV but spends most of her time in the Midwest where she writes and publishes novels, nonfiction, and children's books.