The Powers That Be Short Story Collection

A corporate hatchetman rockets to a defunct space station to retire a rogue replicant with a mind of its own.

With an innate indifference to humanity, Watson excels at his job—chopping mortal corporate headcounts clinging to relevancy in favor of replicants performing the job, any job, a zillion times better. Exhibiting a cold lack of empathy while firing inconsolable humans earned him the nickname Terminator. With his vaunted reputation as a fait accompli, his wicked boss volunteers his services for an off-world assignment that will either vault him out of his dead-end job or send him to bone-crushing death amongst the stars. The next thing the former Space Force cadet knows, he is strapped into an autonomous ride to a defunct space station on a suicidal mission to retire Henry VIII, an obsolete hulk of an android that somehow developed an independent-minded sentience.

Their meeting amongst the stars transforms into a pitted battle of wits, culminating with Watson’s heart-pounding escape while discovering what it means to be the master of one’s own fate.