The Scorpion (Paperback)

The Scorpion takes place in the near future in a day where when you die, they take your brain and hook it up to a computer giving it the ability to think like a human with the speed and accuracy of a computer. The Scorpion, a USS starship, comes back to Earth to get a new brain because the old one has gone senile. Upon returning to Earth the Captain of the Scorpion is informed that they must head out by the end of the week, with or without a brain, on a rescue mission to save two scientists and their families who have been studying the collapse of a sun into a black hole. The scientists have been there three years. Their inter space shuttle has been destroyed and the sun is collapsing inward. The only ship close enough and fast enough to have any hope at all of getting there on time, is Scorpion. And even then it's marginal. At the last minute a brain is found and installed but the brain is drunk so it is hooked up all but the main plug while they wait for the brain to sober up. Meanwhile the Scorpion gets underway. The captain falls in love with a new recruit. There is a stowaway and they come across an enemy flattop that is breaking up in space. They rescue the survivors. The brain is functioning perfectly. Everything seems to be going just fine. Due to the high alcohol levels of the brain, the program to obey orders did not hold. Unbeknownst to the Captain and the crew, the Scorpion has a new master. One that holds grudges. One that plots and schemes working to fulfill an agenda of its own. Using a disgruntled officer who felt that he should be in command, along with the rescued crew members of the Kobon flattop, and the ship's own onboard robots, hell is about to break loose onboard the USS Scorpion.