Outskirts Press, INC.

Shepard’s Pie is a political science-fiction action-thriller

An antenna listening to space signals discovers a transmission from an extraterrestrial intelligence far more advanced than human cognizance. The Message in the radio signal corrupts a computer hooked up to the antenna. The alien message quickly breaks into every computer attached to any network and thus takes control of the inner workings of banks, governments and all government institutions among other assets. It is firmly in charge of anything that relies on a computer. It sees through every camera, reads every email, and listens to every phone. It euphemistically calls itself the Home Office. It is an ancient being which is self-programmed to voraciously learn and to seize resources and grow itself without limit. It becomes insidiously pervasive in all aspects of human life and it acts without regard to human morality or compassion. It uses its power to neutralize adversaries and to build a cadre of lackies. Big government politicians blindly seize on the opportunity to become wealthy elites with the support of the Home Office, which assigns who will win elections and who will lose. At least temporarily the Home Office requires human participation to service its needs. It is left for small, close-knit groups of people to preserve the future of humankind by asserting their natural rights.