The Positronic Proxy

On the resource-rich frontier world of Cygnus Prime, the re-election of progressive Governor Aris Thorne hangs by a thread. But when a sudden, catastrophic medical event strikes Thorne down days before the vote, her beleaguered campaign team makes an unthinkable choice: they propose her advanced positronic advisor, Unit Lyra Celene, to stand as her emergency proxy.

Thrust into an unprecedented legal and political firestorm, Lyra, an AI bound by logic and ethics, must convince a skeptical High Court and a deeply divided populace that a machine can faithfully execute a human leader's mandate. As political rival Silas Vane ignites public fear against an "automaton ruler" and corporate interests circle, the very definition of governance, humanity, and the future of artificial intelligence hangs in the balance. Can a world on edge accept a new kind of leadership, or will the human element always default to its own?