Outside the Context of the Mercy Problem

The robotic Scatha have spent the past ten-thousand years searching for life, but now they have found something they did not expect. A murder. On the surface of a newly discovered planet is the body of a Scatha, and no one knows who it was or what they were doing there. In order to prove herself Mercy, the embodiment of that virtue for Scatha society, agrees to investigate. Yet the killer’s plan for the reshaping Scatha people threatens their very soul and Mercy soon finds herself outmatched.

On the planet’s surface a chance meeting with the natives turns into disaster and a war that will end in genocide. One of the natives, a young naval captain by the name of Raini Kasom, attempts to use Mercy to convince the rest of the Scatha to call off their attack. She struggles to keep her own crew and ship in one piece as the invasion annihilates all resistance. It is the end of the world for Raini and her people and she is determined to go down in a blaze of glory.

With the killer closing in, Mercy makes Raini an offer. Assist her investigation and in doing so save both their species.

This is a completed sci-fi novel I wrote over a decade ago and then abandoned after it failed to get any traction with agents. I’ve decided to post it on Royal Road as it appears to be a fitting place for a novel, and it’s better than sitting on my hard drive.

It is 15 chapters, and I’ll be posting a chapter every few days while I fail to work on my next project. There will also be a chapter on my thoughts about the novel, such as why it failed to get an agent, its history, and where it went wrong and right. Mostly the former.