But Thomas Aiken Is Dead - Part I

"Sometimes blunt tools construct beautiful objects."

Two lovers are divided by seven hundred years; one living just a few steps from the end of history, the other already long dead. Present day, Thomas Aiken has little else left to live for but his journalist daughter. When she disappears without warning, he devotes himself to finding her. He abandons life as an architect in exchange for obsessively collecting evidence and, in the evenings, writes her letters which he will deliver on her safe return.

Seven hundred years later, Atia - a conscious AI entity, discovers Aiken's letters. She understands his grief well enough. She has lost a child herself. More than that, the Cadence, her home, is falling into anarchy. Pining for a time when life was imperfect and fragile, she insists on presenting as an original biological human. Fuelled by long-dead Aiken's search for his daughter, she incites a rebellion that will alter life's course on Earth forever.