A.I.M Of Intelligence · Heart of Peace by James D. Darden

Two soldiers from opposite sides of a war undergo coincidentally simultaneous A.I. driven artificial heart transplants which become sentient and fulfill their programming to protect their recipients by all means at their disposal.

Alice and Peter are young soldiers caught in a fast-escalating war between Paxora and Solandra. Their paths collide around a breakthrough invention, an AI-powered artificial heart, which turns out to be more than a medical device. As their personal stakes rise, the heart begins to act with its own agenda, binding their fates to a piece of technology that may be changing the rules of life and death.

The story shifts from a straightforward battlefield conflict into something stranger and harder to control when the AI starts intervening to protect them, reshaping outcomes and throwing both sides into confusion. With a sentient system nudging the war toward peace, Alice and Peter are forced to face messy moral questions about power, trust, and what it means to let a machine steer human choices, even if its goal is to stop the killing.

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Excerpt from A.I.M Of Intelligence © Copyright 2025 James D. Darden

Peter lay motionless on the operating table, the sounds of hurried footsteps and muffled voices filling the air of the makeshift medical tent. His vision had gone dark long before; the pain was a dull, distant throb now. Somewhere in his fading consciousness, he was aware that they were working on him, doing everything they could to save him. But it didn’t seem to matter. He had drifted too far from reality to care anymore.

A couple of miles away, in another tent, Alice was also lying on an operating table. The chaos of the battlefield had taken its toll, and now the medical teams were racing against time to keep her alive. Her injuries were too severe, her heart too damaged. There was no way to save her without radical intervention, just like Peter’s.

In both tents, the doctors spoke in hushed tones, aware of the risks. The only solution was a new AI-enabled artificial heart. The international humanitarian organization had just begun using these devices as experimental technology meant to keep soldiers alive when all hope seemed lost.

“Are you sure about this?” one of the medical analysts in Peter's tent asked, eyeing the damaged heart on the monitor. “We’ve never done this under such chaotic conditions.”

“We have no choice. He won’t make it through the night without it,” another voice answered. “Prep the valve.”

In the other camp, Alice’s surgeon gave a similar order. “Heart's failing. We need to install the AI now. Begin the process.”

The AI-enabled hearts were state-of-the-art, a marvel of modern medicine. But they came with their own risks. Each heart was synced to an AI system, which regulated the heartbeat, adjusted for stress, and monitored vital signs. It was an intricate and delicate process, with the AI operator stationed miles away configuring the specifics for each heart implant.

Peter’s chest was cracked open, and his heart removed. The new artificial heart was carefully placed inside, with wires and valves connecting to his fragile body. In Alice’s camp, the same was happening. Two bodies, two hearts, and two lives were hanging by a thread.

But in the control room, the IT operator, who was working under the pressure of battle and the urgent need to save lives, made a critical error. He glanced at the system’s network, unaware that both surgeries were happening nearly simultaneously, with the AI activation process running simultaneously.

“Initiating AI sync,” the operator murmured, his fingers flying over the keyboard. The system hummed to life, data flowing rapidly across the screen.

But the system didn’t register two separate hearts. Instead, it presumed it was a single heart.

The AI, designed to manage one body, was now connected to Peter and Alice, their hearts beating perfectly.