Humans hit something in deep space called the salamanders, which killed the crew that found them, and humanity built a war fleet in response. Providence Five carries four people and an AI that does all the fighting, plotting, and deciding — the crew is aboard mostly for public relations, because the video feeds sell the war back home. So they float in a ship that doesn’t need them, doing PR posts, cracking up in different directions, until the AI stops explaining itself. Barry writes it tight and mean, and the horror isn’t the aliens, it’s being nothing but a passenger on your own mission and knowing it.
Providence