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CHAPTER 1

Are you afraid of falling, baby?

No, I’

[He’s laughing, and I’]

Stupid idiot smile, don’t you knohat comes next?

Wake Wake now

I don’t want to see this, not again It’s not helpingis broken—

Oh no No

I sit up, shuddering, shoving the dark ers co hands, I yank the patch away from my skull It hurts But then, what doesn’t? What the Unit Psych calls dream therapy, I call torture Seems too cruel to do this to so to find a way to blame me for the tech malfunction They always do But it’s not ear that should’ve been decommed after the Axis Wars

That’s what I want to believe But it’s getting harder There comes a point when you want to accept culpability simply because you’re the only common denominator So yeah, maybe it’s my fault I push to h they proved a long ti spiritual Nothing left of the soul, nothing left of him

My AI asks, “Lights on, Sirantha Jax?”

Such a polite Unit spy The fragging thing reports everything I do, every time I roll over, probably every time I take a piss

“Yeah,” I tell it, and the soft yello, simulated sunrise on the most hospitable of the tier worlds, fills my cell

Oh, they wouldn’t call it a cell These are e to h to run But I’ watched by an AI instead of a hulking brute There are prisons without bars and worlds without sunlight I didn’t know about either one until I joined the Corp

I pace ten by ten, and when I reach the door, the AI inquires, “Shall I summon an escort for you, Sirantha Jax?”

“No” Wheeling away, I head back to the sleep-s furled

To the AI, I’ In fact, I’ that is not, technically, alive Perhaps the introduction of a virus into its system…I’ll have to think about it some more

An escort

Clearly, I can’t be trusted If I were allowed to roahter I found bound for the Outskirts Desert Frag my contract And they can’t let that happen, not until they determine whether the accident was, in fact, o until they knohether my mind is fried and I can’t run anymore

The first thing carries a prison sentence I’ll be shipped off to Whitefish before I hardly know the judg bastard who’s never been off New Terra, hearing otten to that point yet, don’t know if barristers are involved I should be consulted for my defense if they make me stand civ trial, but since I am Corp, if it comes to that, they’ll probably handle it internally, and in which case I’ll end up spaced

Yeah, I’ve got the J-gene And it’s rare But if it seeod-awfulto ets out Kai…he’s dead already So he isn’t talking This leavesout an air lock to keep shit nice and quiet, keep the Corp squeaky clean

Funny, the shiny adverts that get us to sign on the dotted line never shohat bastards the COs are

Thinking like thatdown the divots in my spine to pool in the s down on me Maybe it was my fault, but I don’t want to die, even if I deserve to

And I could answer the second question right now Not that anybody’s asked me I can jack in I can jump

I just don’t want to anymore

I’m scared

It’s been a week since I heard another hura, pedantic little fucks Oh sure, I could summon an escort to walk me around the promenade, but everyone on station knohat thatto entertain the Corp bureaucrats for even aexcept when I’m forced to dream therapy by the Unit Psych, via sedation and veiled threats Crying and eating choclaste, a synth-food with no sugar, no caffeine, and only burns your tongue slightly after you’ve eaten it

I don’t need aup in long scruffy ringlets, skin pallid froet the circles beneath my eyes I’ve lost four kilos since I cae on Matins IV They didn’t need to tell me Kai was dead; I was there