SYNCOPE

Chapter 1: Glimpse

"I keep hearing that it dreams," a hushed voice said from afar in the common room.

"A Tekkon? Dreaming?" The first voice laughed along. "We do not sleep, so how could that one dream?"

"I can hear you," Valin called out before turning to face them.

Valin didn't remember their Awakening. According to everyone at TEXON Inc., Valin attacked their commander, Father, and their Tekkon superior, Omegi-5, as soon as they came-to. After Father and Omegi restrained Valin and locked them in a room for observation, they discovered, after a while, that Valin had fallen asleep.

"That's not possible," Father had said to Omegi and Delti-1, who had both been assigned to monitor Valin following their unusual Awakening. The three of them had stood in the smaller side room, watching Valin through a window-mirror.

"All readings indicate that Valin-1 is, in fact, asleep, Father."

"Have a look for yourself," Delti had said, holding a holoscreen in front of Father. "The fluctuations in Valin-1's Xeto-body activity are identical to the brain waves one would expect from a sleeping human."

"What stage of sleep is it in right now?" Father hadn't known how to make sense of the data on his own.

Omegi and Delti looked at each other. "REM, sir," Omegi said.

The three of them looked through the window-mirror at Valin sleeping on the concrete floor in the corner of the cell. Their hands and feet twitched occasionally. Father bit the middle knuckle of his index finger, puzzled, amazed, afraid.

The two gossiping Tekkons in the common room retreated after Valin's confrontation. Valin watched them leave into TEXON Inc.'s quarters wing. Charging rooms, mostly, for the Tekkons, and bunk rooms for the company's human and cyborg associates. Valin returned to gazing through TEXON Inc.'s glass floor into the Great Gladdare Chasm.

The Great Gladdare Chasm was the deepest trench in Tatrayus' southern hemisphere. Humanity began excavations about 100 years after settling on Tatrayus, and now, 400 years later, the Chasm supported a bustling city called Gladdare, home to millions. TEXON Inc. was built atop Gladdare Peak. The original land formation was a rocky, desert plateau of the peak's height. From this vantage point, those within the company walls could see everything in the Chasm, everything in the city. It was like a crater except steeper, deeper, and man-made over centuries of mining operations. Gladdare Peak cast a dark shadow onto the Chasm for most of the day as if it engulfed the chasmic poverty of the many within the great wealth of the microscopic few. The city's buildings were constructed along the cliff faces of the oval-shaped chasm and buzzed with electricity: hoverpods whirred from District to District and ward to ward. Telecommunication towers atop the tallest buildings sparked and warped and whined and then all-at-once shot bolts of plasma-electrical data across the Chasm to elsewhere in the city. In general, the poorer you were, the farther downslope you lived in the Chasm. Not by some totalitarian, segragationist mandate, no; it's just how things were. The poor needed to live close to the factories and the mines where they could labour their lives away and rot into the abyss without a sound. And the rich... well, the rich were busy conducting lavish experiments and inventing an endless variety of luxury goods and needless junk to keep themselves occupied with. These BusiTeks, as Valin liked to call them, lived up-cliff from most of the city, occupying one of the only stable plateaus left in the Chasm. These were the academics, the lawyers, researchers, and the like. On the other intact plateau, on the opposite side of the Chasm, was District Gamma, where the manufacturing factories and ore processing plants existed. It was arguably the most important District in the city, but it was built atop an intact, yes, but extremely unstable plateau. Any newcomer to Gladdare, or even a particularly ignorant and vapid BusiTek, wouldn't know that the Trench, carved around District Gamma like a moat around a castle, was on the verge of collapse into the abyss below. Yes, the entirety of Gladdare's manufacturing power, which was all of the city's power, was crumbling fast. But, so long as the rich had their toys and most of their playpen, TEXON Inc.'s media branch was happy to sweep the economical implications of collapse under the rug. Another problem for another day.

Valin imagined someone in District Gamma looking up Gladdare Peak and seeing TEXON Inc.: a black dot at the limits of their vision. They wondered if Gamma's inhabitants knew how closely they were being watched, and what they thought of TEXON. Valin then looked farther downslope at the Great Containment Barrier at the bottom of the Chasm and wondered what it would feel like to fall from Gladdare Peak and shatter against the obsidian. They wondered which was stronger, their diamond-fibre skin or a kilometre-thick slab of obsidian? They recalled their first recon mission to the Barrier, where they went down to it with Omegi and its senior SpecOps cell to check exactly how unstable the Trench had become. In a fit of wonder and impulse, Valin hopped the shitty chain-link and barbed wire fence separating rock from cliff and fell free for a moment before landing hard on the Barrier. From that measly height, Valin's impact split and cracked the obsidian on impact. Valin's Xeto-body, the amalgamation of Xetonon wires beneath their diamond-fibre skin, crackled and spat neon green electric bolts up their legs like shin splinters before going silent and dead. Father had taken to the comms to reprimand Valin for their impulsiveness: Not only did you abandon your recon route for whimsy, he'd scolded, but there also isn't anybody who can set foot on the Barrier without melting their flesh to the bone. Get your shiny, diamond ass back en-route, Scout. Now! The excited green bolts bouncing around Valin's Xeto-body then turned a dull navy blue and swirled inwards to their core until nothing remained. Valin had rolled their LED eyes, and as they activated the rocket propulsion cybertek in their feet to carry them back up-cliff, the 'tek popped with orange sparks, boosted them a pathetic three feet off the Barrier, and then died completely. Valin dropped once again to the Barrier, stumbling to keep themself upright. Without the rockets, Valin had to climb hand-over-hand up the cliff to the fence. Lesson learned: while their diamond-fibre skin might have been able to withstand the fall and the heat of the Barrier, they now knew that the Xetonon wiring in their body could not. Worth it, though. TEXON replaced the 'tek, but also installed another mandatory software update to Valin's consciousness chip, their ConTek, "To prevent instances of whimsical thinking in the future," Omegi told them.

The ConTek updates were almost wholly ineffective. None of them had ever done anything to change Valin's temperament, mentality, or personality. To Valin, Gladdare was a playground. If there weren't a cybertek tracker installed somewhere in their body monitoring every movement, Valin would take off into the city and be free of TEXON and Father and the non-consensual ConTek updates and the other Tekkons and everything else that said there was something wrong with them. So far, Valin couldn't find the tracker to remove it. But when they did, when that day finally came, hoverpod surfing was at the top of their agenda. Just imagine: zipping and zopping through the labyrinth of Gladdare's towers and skyscrapers atop some bitter BusiTek's hoverpod, diving at unimaginable speeds through the three-dimensional intersections, or shooting along the hoverways only to hop off onto a telecomm tower that would fry their Xeto-body in an instant. Sure, all organic-borns experience death, but Tekkons...

"Valin-1," Omegi waved its hand in front of Valin's face, breaking their gaze into the Chasm. "Have you been listening?"

"Oh," was all Valin could manage. They sat up and turned to face Omegi and Delti, avoiding direct eye contact. The TEXON Elite, Magna Cosus, had assigned Omegi and Delti to monitor (supervise) Valin. Whenever they saw Valin's behaviour deviate from the ascribed parameters that the AI in their ConTek was trained on, Omegi and Delti coded and installed an update. Tekko-Scribe Omegi-5 stared at Valin, and they gave, "No, I was just..."

"Mm-hmm." There was nothing in Omegi's pinpointed eyes.

A notification appeared and hovered in Valin's vision for a moment before minimizing to a blinking yellow dot in the periphery of their view-glass. Another mandatory ConTek update. Valin was already waiting to be called into Cosus' penthouse atop the company building for some kind of 'urgent' meeting, as Father put it. Doesn't seem very urgent. I've been waiting for hours. Father was coming, too. Just the two of them. And then they'd be updated. Again.

"I will run another diagnostic during your meeting," Omegi said. "I have already begun compiling files for review."

Valin's Xeto-body, the tangled network of Xetonon wiring beneath their diamond-fibre skin, twisted into a deep orange and shook like pebbles in an earthquake.

"Omegi-5," Delti pointed at Valin's body. "Valin-1's Xeto-body is doing it again."

Valin pushed Delti's hand away. "I told you not to call me that."

The brilliant warping of Valin's Xeto-body was often bright enough to be seen through their Lukit, an obsidian black, tunic-like garment that Cosus' Tekkons were required to wear. Like a housecoat, the Lukit was loose and tied at the waist. A thicker fabric wrapped around the head and neck and in front of the face, leaving only the eyes visible, and the arms and legs were shrouded in black mesh that tapered at the wrists and ankles. The higher a Tekkon climbed in rank, or, in another way of putting it, the more body iterations a Tekkon's unique AI has been put into, the more embellishments it earned to decorate its Lukit. A Tekkon giving up its body in service to the company, or "dying" for the company, was rewarded with social status and bling. Omegi's facial shroud had five small golden studs along its edges. Detli's was empty, like Valin's.

"But that is what you are," Delti said plainly. "AI-name Valin, iteration 1."

"No, that's what you are."

"Valin-1, we are not organic-born," it persisted. "We are Tekkon, and we have been created for the express purpose of-"

"Wiping Cosus' nasty ass, yes, yes. What does he do besides sit in that penthouse and-"

"Valin-1," Omegi interrupted. "That's enough."

"Sure! Keep defending him!" Valin stood and began to storm away, calling back, "He couldn't care less about you." Passing the elevator, it dinged and whirred open. Father. The red tendrils and fibres in Valin's Xeto-body, in their rushing tension and heat, emanated a low orange glow through Valin's Lukit. Father grabbed Valin's arm to stop them, but had to pull his hand away as soon as contact was made. Valin stopped anyway.

"Fuck, Valin," Father exclaimed. "This again? Relax, you almost burned me."

"Then tell Omegi and Delti to stuff it," Valin spat. OF COURSE there was never anything wrong with the other Tekkons! They're so... flat! Dead! Valin didn't understand what was so wrong with their AI that caused the others to obsess over treating their "condition" day-in and day-out. Valin thought their Xeto-body "glitches" were sublime supernovae of data and heat bursting in an otherwise dead and desolate Xeto-body. It was their sole form of self-expression. But, only their body did it.

Valin ignored the rest of Father's calling and took the elevator to Maintenance Level 1, close to the bottom of the mountain. The elevator creaked open to a dank, dark hallway. A few fluorescent lights flickered above; broken cords and scrap matieral littered the walls, ceilings, and doorways; and a strange, green slime grew on every surface. The maintenance floors had been abadoned long ago and were only accessed in case of emergencies. By the state of the place, Valin assumed there hadn't been anyone working down there since long before their Awakening.

Valin huffed and stormed down the hall. At the end on the left, Valin pushed open the door to a claustrophobic janitorial closet full of odd gadgets and rusted tools and bottles of expired cleaning chemicals. They closed the door, and their Xeto-body began to cool at last. There was only one place where neither the Tekkons nor Father nor Cosus himself could "keep an eye on" Valin, although they knew the others could still monitor their Xeto-body activity, location, and the likes through the hidden cybertek tracker.

Valin stood on the edges of a tub-sized sink. They reached up to the grating on a ceiling vent. They loosened the screws, and the grating came free. Valin put it next to the sink and lifted themself into the maintenance ventilation shaft. The vents ran throughout the entire facility, from this basement maintenance floor all the way up to Cosus' penthouse above the clouds. You could get anywhere you wanted in TEXON Inc. if you knew where you were going.

The ventilation shaft was a narrow hallway. This deep in the mountain, the walkways were so long they couldn't see the end in either direction they looked because a thick, green fog lingered in the air. The pipes and monitors and valves and buttons that made up the walls of the ventilation shaft were likewise covered in that strange, gooey, green slime. Valin walked to the end of the hallway to their right. There, they climbed a ladder halfway before leaping off onto some piping. There wasn't metal grate flooring here, just pipes and green condensation. They tucked themself into this nook, sure nobody would find them there. They were quite sure everyone had forgotten about Maintenance Floor 1, but something instinctual told them to hide anyway.

Instinctual. Father would have my ConTek wiped, reset to factory defaults, thrown into a smelter and reformed into a new piece of 'tek just for claiming to have such a thing as instincts. I am not organic-born.

What more could the others do at this point? They tested, surveyed, and updated Valin's ConTek almost every day as of late, and Valin wasn't sure how much longer they could take it. Hiding out in ventilation was miserable. Humiliating! But it was the only place they could have sacred solace from the others, the only place they could house a variety of their secrets without the others knowing. In fact, ventilation was the keeper of the most incriminating evidence of Valin's Otherness: their journal. Writing was an ancient method of Earth communication. Today, it approached obsolescence, at least on Tatrayus. None of the other Tekkons knew how to read or write except for code, nor did Father, nor Cosus. But Valin did, and they weren't sure how or why. It felt instinctual.

Valin opened their journal, and put a pen to the page:

They've tried everything, and nothing works. They just can't seem to make me function as they want me to. These updates they're forcing on my ConTek aren't... painful, if I can even claim to know what that is. They're jarring, and frightening. In the last update, they tried to jam my Xeto-body with lines of code that would nullify any unprompted display of colours. My pathways sparked and popped to kill the new code, the invaders of my body, and my wiring was damaged. They marked me unfit for recon. And don't even get me started on how boring the walls of TEXON are to stare at every single day. I need to escape to Gladdare, and soon.

With every update, I'm not sure if I'll come back the same person. The same... thing. What if one of them fries my ConTek? I'm swirling in blues and magentas just thinking about it. The colours make everything seem so different, like a filter laid over my eyes and my thoughts. When I'm here in this nook, it's always blues and magentas. I want to sit here and shiver and stare at the pipes and ponder. I'm not sure what the correct question is to be asking myself here: Why am I like this, or why are they like that?

Omegi and Delti are colourless. They command their Xeto-body to mirror their surroundings, for camouflage on recon missions. But I can't command mine, and it doesn't reflect the outside. My colours are from me. Are me.

Where did TEXON source my AI? What about it is so different from Omegi and Delti's? Why am I different? Why does it matter so much that I am?

Valin's journal fell to their lap. The blues and magentas twisted and combined into a drab sage green. Writing helped Valin process their reality, but sometimes it only heightened their awareness of the circumstances which they are powerless to change. Valin stared up into the piping above them, wondering what turns and ways would lead to Cosus' penthouse as the greenish fog obscured their vision. They glanced at the blinking yellow notification, at a complete loss. Another update after the meeting, another chance I will cease to exist as I am now. Valin-2. Would they give me a golden stud for my Lukit? I haven't accomplished anything. My new iteration would be a symbol of failure, not a tale of success and sacrifice like Omegi's.

Valin put their view-glass to sleep and allowed the sage green to engulf their Xeto-body. It was always easier to let the body do what it wanted, to let it decrypt the colours' elusive meanings as it saw fit. Father and Delti and Omegi encouraged Valin to suppress the colours, but Valin knew better. The colour helped them. The green... the green. It's okay to be green. They sighed. I need something to rip me away from here. I need to go, but where? I have nowhere but here. I need-

Valin woke their view-glass when they felt the pipes all around them begin to vibrate, a faint humming and buzzing like telecomm static gathering and readying to fire. Then, the pipes properly shook. The metal reverberated against Valin's skin and rang throughout ventilation. The journal's pages wobbled, then spasmed. Valin's Xeto-body trembled and warped as the sage green turned into bright yellow sparks.

A legion of tiny black specks overwhelmed Valin and all of ventilation, their senses, and their Xeto-body. At first, Valin thought their Xeto-body had burst through the fibres of their diamond skin and at last they were finally dead and free, before they realized that the specs were something else entirely. Valin's Xeto-body dazzled nebulaeic colours, interstellar light. They were galactic-orbit awestruck. Such incredible speed, they ogled, and so many! I must know what they are!

Valin called out, "Stop!" And at their command, the swarm halted. Each tiny black speck shone in place like metallic grains of sand suspended in water. The specks turned in unison as if to face Valin, and then advanced slowly toward them. Valin looked, unmoving, and felt the specks looking back. The tatters of their Lukit, shredded in the specks' onslaught, fell to their sides. They pulled the rest off themself and looks at their hands and arms.

"You scratched my skin," Valin said. "But... my skin is diamond."

For a moment, the specks floated around Valin. Then, as if summoned to come together, the specks coiled and pulsed and warped, not unalike Valin's Xeto-body, in a swirling vortex and condensed. The swarm began to take a tangible shape, an anthropomorphic shape. Once they were assembled as one, two neon yellow eyes rolled forward on the being's face and blinked to life.

"We are Zeph," the being said.

Valin was dumbstruck.

"We- you are in the vents," Zeph said.

"Yes?"

Zeph stared. "What are you doing here?"

Valin looked at their journal and then back at Zeph. "Taking a break," they said. "I come here to write and be alone." Valin wasn't sure why they were telling Zeph this.

Zeph's nanobot chest rippled like water after a drop as it studied Valin's journal. Icy blue shards like slivers of steel scattered across Valin's chest, and Zeph looked up.

"Brilliant," it cooed.

There was nothing for Valin to say.

"We also have no home," Zeph said. "We have not known that intimate comfort in... decades."

"You can read?" For a second, Valin and Zeph stared at each other. "My AI likes to fashion these colours," Valin explained.

Zeph looked them in the eye. "And?"

"...And theirs don't. The other Tekkons, I mean."

"Go on."

Valin hesitated. "They think there's something wrong with me, so they update my ConTek chip that houses the AI. It... scares me."

Zeph's nanos waved as if something passed through it, like a flag in the wind.

"You do it too..." Valin's Xeto-body was aquamarine waves crashing inside their skin. Zeph's eyes widened in awe, and it reached out as if wanting to touch Valin before retracting its hand. "It's inside my diamond-fibre casing," Valin said. "You wouldn't be able to feel it."

"Why do you stay here if you are mistreated?"

"There's a tracker inside my Xeto-body. If I left, they'd have me back in minutes. I've been trying to find it so I can remove it, but I can't."

A visor materialized in front of Zeph's eyes. Golden beams of light came through the lenses. As it scanned over Valin's body, their diamond-fibre skin glowed and refracted the light to point inside of them. The beams centered themselves toward the heart of Valin's chest. Zeph touched one finger over that point, and from the tip a small group of nanobots detached and began to find their way through the fibres of Valin's skin, into their Xeto-body. Where the light condensed, and where the nanobots were headed, Valin's Xeto-body produced a vibrant, lovely violet.

The Xeto-body reacts to its presence... "What are you?"

"We are Zeph."

The group of nanobots pushed and squirmed and shook as they moved through Valin's skin, withstanding the fibre's astonishing pressure. Finally, they met Valin's Xeto-body, which caused them to writhe. The sensation! The Xeto-body... feels? It's like tiny needles stabbing into my wires.

Valin rephrased: "No, what are you? What are you made of?"

"We are one mind made of countless individuals, like water." Silence. "These ones have found the tracker, deep inside the Xeto-body's core."

"No wonder..." The nanobots' legs poked and prodded at the tracker's tiny ports, sending shivers through Valin.

"Trying to remove it yourself..." Zeph paused. "...Would have killed you."

"Sitting in TEXON with nothing to do also would have killed me."

"It is done," Zeph said. "Your tracker is no longer functional." The notification in Valin's view-glass vanished.

The violet light had bled into the depths of their Xeto-body, trickling down the wires like water calmly over stones. As it flowed, its congregation in Valin's chest grew vivid, wrapping around itself in infinite ways, infinite directions, until it became steadfast and radiant, the most consistent pattern of colours Valin had ever seen their body produce. The nanobots' tendrils climbed from Valin's chest into their back and up the nape of their neck into the base of their head. There, the spindly tendrils coalesced, nestling in as if the nanobots were making themselves comfortable. Six tendrils rolled out and wormed themselves into Valin's head, tendrils of nanotek thinner than Father's receding hair, so nebulous and covert they were indistinguishable from Valin's Xeto-wires, so filamentous that they integrated into Valin's Xeto-body without any physical sensation. Valin closed their view-glass and focused on the newfound, violet sensation in their heart. Soft, furry, and warm like a drier-fresh blanket, sunshine swirls hummed in their cheeks and stomach.

"Thank you." Valin palced a hand over their violet heart. "I'm free as soon as I get the chance to leave TEXON again."

"Soon, Valin." Zeph placed its hand on Valin's. "Do you feel it, the Tether? I build the hardware and software myself."

"I don't know what it is," Valin said. "But I really like it."

Zeph's nanobots rattled; it sounded like laughter. "I knew you would."

"Wait," Valin said, refocusing back into reality. "You knew I would? And you were surprised to find me in the vents... Do we know each other?"

"Do you think so?"

And with that, Zeph disintegrated into its marvelous nanobot storm. "No, wait!" But it was too late, and the swarm continued it path up the vents into TEXON Inc.

**********

"I said it's personal." To that, Father huffed and threw up his hands.

Valin kneeled on a mat in TEXON's common area. The perplexed Father, Omegi, and Delti looked down at them.

"You're not in trouble, Valin." Father could not have sounded less assuring. "We just need to know how your diamond skin got scratched and why your Lukit is tatters."

"Sounds like I'm in trouble," Valin retorted as they rose and stood to face Father. They towered over him, and Father shrunk away. Omegi stepped between them and matched Valin's poise.

"As your superior, I am ordering you to tell us what happened," Omegi said.

"As the royal pain in your ass," Valin said as a vent above them rumbled and hissed with dust. "No." Violet-morphing-red radiance shimmered off Omegi's golden studs.

Father shook his head. "There it is again!" He pinched his nose to avoid breathing the dust. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Father," Delti began. "If I may suggest a cause for the ventilation's odd noises and Valin-1's bizarre circumstances..."

Pulse. Snaking wires beat deep in Valin's chest.

"I'm listening," Father said.

"Just before it returned to the common area, I received a notification from Valin-1's ConTek Diagnostic Responder." Delti looked at Valin. "Its tracker has gone offline."

"Shit..." Valin avoided Father's eyes. Omegi glanced between them. Father waved a hand to dismiss Omegi, who obeyed and stepped aside. Father put his hands on Valin's shoulders.

In a hushed voice, he said, "Please, Valin. What happened?" Valin had never seen Father so genuinely concerned for them before.

Rusted iron metal shavings pulsed beneath Father's hands. Their and Father's eyes connected. They sighed, shaking their head. "I'm... not really sure. I'm telling you."

"Last known location was Ventilation A," Delti continued. "Accessed from Maintenance Level 1."

"That's a coincidence," Valin growled, and Father took his hands off them.

Everyone just looked at Valin. Deep in their chest, Valin's Tethered heart seared in fury and slung ripples of heat into their neck, shoulders, and fists.

"I don't know what happened to my tracker," Valin spat. "Not every little thing that goes wrong is my fault!"

"We know, Valin," Father said. "Just calm down a little, okay?"

Every Tekkon in the common area had stopped their conversations to stare at the scene.

"Don't tell me to calm down! I've fucking had it." Valin bore their diamond teeth. They revelled in the rage from the Tether. It connected something within Valin that made every colour they shone and every texture that coalesced through their Xeto-body felt. Fury enchanted their chest. "What's so crazy about that?! You update me without my consent; you pathologize everything about me that's different from the other Tekkons. Why even use a different AI model if you wanted me to be like everyone else?!"

Valin laughed aloud in the surging hilarity of their newfound confidence. The Tether pulsed again, sending shivers up Valin's back, and they knew, in that instant, that the company cannot stop us.

Omegi once again stepped between Valin and Father, pushing Valin back with a hand on their chest. "Delti-1, we must conduct an emergency diagnostic of all systems, and Valin-1 must temporarily be deactivated for the procedure."

"Did you not hear a word I just said?" Valin grabbed Omegi by the shoulders and shook it. "Is there anything inside you, Omegi? Delti? Is your conscience just Cosus' orders? Analytics? Program?!"

For the first time ever, Omegi had no response. It stuttered like sparks popping from a broken fuse. Valin released it.

"Be my fucking guest, asshole! Update me again. It won't work!" Valin pointed right in Omegi's face. "If Cosus wanted another obedient Tekko-SLAVE then maybe he should've just used your generation of AI again!"

Before anyone could respond, Valin threw up their hands and stormed to their quarters.

Synco-Dream I: Flesh

What is flesh if not Xetonon? Think of the Amalgamations: you can feel the world through the Xeto-growth on your skin. Me? No, not me. I'm all flesh. Some have called me the Depths' most valuable miner. Witch tales of in-born resistance to Xeto-growth, something in her blood that repels the Xetonon formations, a polarized electromagnetic pulse in her axioms. Doctors, doctors. There wasn't anything wrong with being resistant, right?

Well, no, there wasn't. But I always thought there was. I get sent into the dangerous mine shafts because the Xetonon won't get to me. And what of it? My life is as much at risk as anyone else's. Sure, the Xetonon won't get to me, but if I slipped and fell and bashed my head at the bottom of an unexplored cavern, then what? Who will the reconnaissance for the Depthsfolk? We gotta keep working, somehow. And this most recent job was no exception.

But why am I flesh? Am I sure I'm flesh? How would I have any way of knowing? A thin spindle of Xetonon could have wormed its way into my brain by now and I wouldn't have noticed. I'm no different if it has. Still flesh. Xeto-flesh, maybe. Not like the amalgamations, though. A more integrated Xeto-flesh. Or am I Xetonon? Fleshonon?

Sweat. Flesh and Xetonon both sweat. The best way I can explain it is, well, water. There isn't that much of a difference between perspiration and condensation, is there? An exchange in energy is just that. Why bother with a perspiration/condensation binary? Liquid and gas aren't different things. Okay, Mr. 0011, listen close now: an energy exchange is a relation between two beings in the universe. Get real. Maybe if there weren't all this fucking smog, I could sweat right.

I've never not had it out for these damned corpos. You don't grow up in the Depths without that resentment. Everyone's got it. Sweat. Labour. Suffering. The credit they pay us is no good down here, either. The Mine Union pools it together on payday. We put some away just in case, but the rest we convert to Vexit and distribute based on work logs. If you've worked, Vexit'll buy you something. A day's rations. Cybertek. Neuro-chems. A room with AC for an hour or two.

Shit, it's really fucking hot down here. I must be within a kilometre of a lava pool. Bayman's got sonar. I'll have him check beyond the cavern's walls before we drill the tunnels. Have you ever stood in a tunnel that goes on for kilometres in front of you? Eventually it obscures in the airborne Xeto-vapour, a lime greenish fog. Like mirror tunnels. You know what I mean? If you hold a mirror in front of another mirror, the reflections will fuck each other up into an infinite green tunnel. Seriously, try it.

The great thing about the non-space of this crevice is that it doesn't matter if I'm flesh or Xetonon. Both bleed the same. Oh, shit! That's a huge Xetonon vein! A tunnel this way will help us plenty. I gotta get a closer look, but, fuck, the ground. I've never felt a tremor quite like that. I should go.

I should go.

I should go...

I should...
...go...

Yes, I think this is the way I came in.

Is that light? Thank god.

Mmm, lovely, my favourite helping hand. She's always there to see me out of the mineshaft. Zeph. She's exactly what I need to remind me that I am flesh. Maybe the Xetonon deposits affect me more than I think... or am I sure? What if we're both Xetonon?

Zeph and Valin: Xetonon. Flesh?

Flesh?

FLESH?

Valin came out of the dream kicking and screaming. After coming-to, Valin sat on the edge of their cot and wiped droplets of condensation (perspiration?) off their skin with a rag they kept nearby. In the anxiety of their dream their body had heated, but they weren't sure if the droplets perpirated through their skin or condensed from the outside. Silver shatter scuttled across their Xeto-body, and Valin shivered. I'm Xetonon, not flesh. NOT flesh. They looked at their hand, at their Xeto-body. Right?

Chapter 2

On the elevator to Cosus' penthouse, Valin and Father stood in awkward silence. Valin stood rigidly, with their arms wrapped around themself. From Father's perspective, Valin must have held a rather condescending posture over him. Valin shifted their body to try to appear more shy and small. The Xeto-body gurgled and bubbled as if to bleed, and the slick obsidian slabs that made up the elevator glimmered in crimson light.

"Father," Valin broke the silence. "What's Cosus going to do to me?"

He sighed. "Just let me handle it, okay?" Valin didn't expect Father to offer much beyond this dismissal, so they pressed.

"Has Cosus ever seen a Tekkon without a Lukit?"

"No." Father looked at his feet and smacked his lips. "But how much could he do to you, Valin? You're made of diamond for crying out loud."

"Decommission me," Valin pouted, posture waning further. "He could do it himself right there, even."

Father didn't reply.

"I don't want to die."

"Tekkons don't die, Valin. Besides, Cosus needs you. Don't worry about being decommissioned."

"For what?" Valin began to pace the elevator. "I haven't been remotely useful to TEXON."

"Because you're not like his other Tekkons," Father said.

Valin looked at Father. "Then why did he assign Omegi and Delti to 'fix' me? If I'm supposed to be different?"

"He's not trying to make you like the others, Valin," Father groaned. "The bizarre colours are a liability. That's all he wants to fix. You ever notice how you can hold an organic conversation, and the others can't?"

"So that's the piont of the new AI? Small talk?"

Father glared at them. "We didn't anticipate the malfunctions that came with an experimental AI placed in an older body model, no. That's what Cosus wants to correct. But you yourself... He needs your AI, Valin. So, relax. And for once in your life, just shut up while we're up there. Please."

"Father, I had a dream last night."

"No," Father rebutted as the elevator stopped and opened. "You didn't. Don't even allude to it in front of Cosus."

Valin wanted to ask why they didn't create a new cyberbody model to match the new AI, but there wasn't any time. ANd then there was Cosus' penthouse: awe. Rage! Why does this fuck get SO much? It was much more than just a house: the floors, walls, and ceilings were the same obsidian as the elevator, and an elegant red carpet led to and up the giant foyer stiarcase. There was so much space for nothing at all: the only other thing there was a lonely housekeeper bot.

Paintings hung on the walls of the foyer: oils of Cosus' predecessors. The company and the penthouse had, of course, been passed to Cosus through his luxuriously rich family. It was the kind of wealth accumulated over hundreds and hundreds of years, generations of stored credit held up in infrastructure, real estate, off-world assets. Endless interstellar wealth. Valin wondered if Cosus' bloodline reached back to humanity's discovery of Tatrayus a couple thousand years ago.

To the left of the central red carpet was a small seating area and a fireplace. The chairs were ornately carved of a dark wood, surely imported, and had soft, red velvet cushions. Father led Valin to the chairs and pushed them down into one.

"Don't stand up. Don't speak."

At the top of the grand staircase, the heavy metal doors to Cosus' office-suite ground open, receding into a wall cavity. Valin rolled their eyes, for lo-and-behold, Cosus was standing, posturing, behind the doors as they opened. He stepped onto the grand landing and spread his hands in welcome. Father wasn't just one of Cosus' top specialty agents, he was also a dear friend. Father climbed the staircase to meet Cosus, taking his hand with enthusiasm.

"My friend, you should emerge from your duties more often," Father said and smiled with Cosus. "Else your work will turn you to dust, old man."

Work? Valin's eyes could not roll further.

Cosus laughed his raspy laugh, a hundred or so years of cigar plaque in his filthy lungs. "You worry too much, Lenny. The numbers keep me sharp."

Father and Cosus laughed and exchanged more pleasantries, jokes, and anecdotes than Valin could endure. Valin sat in that, rather comfortable, actually, chair listening to this superficial babble for what felt like eons. Shall I write a memoir while I wait? Or an epic sci-fi trilogy in Earth's ancient tradition? Valin fidgeted and turned over their thoughts until Father and Cosus hushed their voices and spoke closely. They both looked down at Valin, who waved back. Didn't stand, didn't speak. Father rolled his eyes, and Cosus turned a little red.

"Once again, Mag, my most sincere apologies," Father said, bowing his head. "Omegi-5 and Delti-1 are investigating its programming and Lukit as we speak, and it's due for another update after this meeting."

"Good. Let's make this quick, then." Cosus eyed Valin carefully. "Valin-1, please come upstairs into my business suite."

Valin minded themself and joined Father and Cosus on the grand landing. As they entered the suite together, the doors ground closed behind them. Valin looked back, and a yellow buzzing stirred in their chest. Such heavy doors... for what?

Two Guardian Tekkons stood at the entrance, and some were posted in the rooms beyond the front meeting area. Their body models were more android than Valin's: human legs, feet, head, and arms, and they were smaller like humans, too. Not like Scout Tekkons. Valin and their peers resembled anthropomorphic dragon people, legs bent back like a beast, a tail curving wide at the end like a scythe. They had two horns on their forehead went backwards along the curvature of their head, and diamond claws on both hands and feet. Scout Tekkons were designed for stealth and fear, one of their main responsibilites to "silence" any witnesses to their existence. They were equipped with a cybertek dart called a Mem-Dart that would put a human to sleep for an hour at most and erase any memory of seeing a Teekon. As Valin walked past the Guardian Tekkons, even they shrunk away at first glance.

Although, Valin had to admit that they were jealous of the Guardian Tekkons in one regard: their LethaTek arms. These cybertek limbs were holograms that could morph between and solidify into diamond-fibre weapons. A nick from one of those blades would be enough to sever an artery. Even the Xeto-body could be ruptured if the blade struck the diamond-fibre at the right angle. Sure, Valin had their own awesome features and a superior physical stature, but something about the hack and slash of arm-swords was as irresistable to them as it was threatening.

Cosus strode into the suite ahead of Father and Valin and stopped before a wall of windows. His view of Tatrayus' sky and horizon were unmatched. Oh, wonderful. More theatrics. No ordinary working person or both in all of Gladdare had the opportunity to see Tatrayus' sky. Valin would bet credit that most of them didn't know what it looked like unless they were fortunate enough to have come in from off-world or study it in academia. The one other time that Valin had been in Cosus' suite, they marvelled at the spectacle. This time, the late evening sun turned the sky a heather mauve, and swathes of orange strato-form clouds hung on the horizon. A few stars, yes, stars! were visible. Below the penthouse, Gladdare's thick, rusted smog-clouds blocked all view of the city. It was just Cosus and his gorgeous, god-forsaken sky.

Two other mountain peaks were visible in the distance. To the north-east, there was a peak shrouded in fog and clouds. Much farther to the north was the second, closer to the equator where most of Tatrayus' major space ports were. Valin didn't know who the other Elites were, or which of TEXON's branches they owned. Valin wondered what each city was like and how they compared to Gladdare.

"It's extraordinary, don't you think?" Cosus didn't turn around.

"Yes." Valin joined him by the window, Father lurking close behind.

"You know, some nights I sleep in the business suite. Nothing makes me feel more human than a view of the night sky. Oh, I sleep like a baby."

"Must be nice," Valin said.

Cosus but his lips between his front teeth and stared for a second more before turning back to face Father. Valin continued to sky-gaze.

"Its Lukit," Cosus started, and Father sighed. "Where is it?"

Father bowed his head in shame. "We don't know yet. As soon as we do, you will know."

"Excellent." Pause. "And what about its skin? What could have possibly scratched its diamond skin?"

"We don't know that, either," Father said. "Valin won't tell us what happened. But, of course, the only logical conclusion is something else made of diamond."

"Another Tekkon? Which sector?" Cosus paced, looking at the ground.

"Yeah, I guess it would've had to be diamonds," Valin said. "I never thought about it like that before. But, it wasn't another Tekkon. There is no treason."

"Then what?"

"You know, I'm sincerely not entirely sure."

"And your glowing chest?"

Valin turned around to face Cosus and Father. "I have grown a heart."

Cosus could only look at Father with bewilderment and concern.

"I..." Father sighed and bowed his head again. "Forgive me, Mag. I don't know what's going on."

Cosus was red. "You better figure it out, Lenny! You, Delti, and Omegi have ONE job. I don't understand what could possibly be taking you so long to find a solution to whatever it is that's wrong with it!"

Father didn't say anything.

Cosus began pacing again and walked past his ornate wooden desk. He slammed down his fist and shot his pointer finger at Father. "Keep a closer eye on it. Someone must be with it at all times! Another Scout Tekkon! Someone who could restrain it if need be."

"I'm not a child," Valin interjected. "I don't need supervision."

Cosus shook his head. "What the hell were you thinking, Lenny?"

Father looked at him. "Mag, let's not get into it with Valin here-"

"No, I'm out of patience! This experimental project of yours is costing TEXON money! Drawing unwanted attention from the media! Benji and his reporters are furious. Valin-1 has been spotted more times than we think. 'Killer death bot' is what the journalists are calling it!"

"You're supposed to sleep witnesses, Valin!"

"I... didn't know I'd been spotted."

"And that's what's costing ME money, bot!" Cosus struck his desk again. "I couldn't care less about your 'heart'. You're a machine! Just do what you're told and follow your programming, damnit!" Father couldn't bear to look up from the floor.

Valin wanted to scream into Cosus' face to eat shit and die.

"Omegi and Delti are working on it," Father said. "We'll just have to wait, Mag."

"The Lukit, the scratches." Cosus waved his hand in the air as he went on. "I don't want this thing fucking anything else up! Experimental AI... What were you thinking, Lenny? Where did you even get it?"

"I was your idea?" Valin stared at Father, who was shaking.

Father hesitated. He opened his mouth to speak, but that noise coming from ventilation interrupted him. Everyone in the room stopped to listen. It sounded like... something was on its way.

"They're looking into the noise, too," Father said before Cosus could even begin.

"I don't know what's going on here, Lenny," Cosus growled, even sounding a little scared.

The noise grew louder. The room no longer had to be silent to hear it. It was present all around them. The windowpanes began to resonate and hum.

"You!" Cosus stormed toward Valin. "I don't know what you've done, but we'll get to the bottom of it!" Cosus looked at his Guardian Tekkons. "Bring Valin-1 to the prisons. Prepare to deactivate and incinerate the body. What a waste of credit."

Three Guardian Tekkons stormed toward Valin from all angles. The one that approached form behind kicked the back of Valin's knee in and held them kneeling by the back of their neck. Its LED eyes seemed to study the violet Tether wiring reaching into Valin's head through their neck. The other two grabbed Valin's arms and held them securely by their elbows. Valin cooperated and let the Guardian Tekkons restrain them, though they could overpower the three of them if they really wanted to.

"Father," Valin called as the Tekkons finally pulled them to their feet and pushed them toward the heavy doors. "Don't let them do this. Please! I don't wanna die!"

"Oh, you're dead, bot," Cosus screamed before Father could respond. "You're-"

Cosus continued to rant, but Valin could no longer make out what he was saying, as the noise from the vents deafened the room. Then, Zeph, the great nanobot swarm, burst into the penthouse. It filled the room before collecting itself into steady streams, like wild, whipping tentacles. The streams surrounded Cosus, who screamed in horror and flailed his arms and cried out for help before the lines narrowed and invaded his head through every orifice. His ears exploded and gushed with blood; his eyes fell gooey and shredded from their sockets; his screams became gurgling sputters that sprayed from his throat. At last, the Elite fell to his knees as his skull irrupted through his skin, splitting at its seams as Zeph's nanobots pushed out of his head. His eyeless, mouth-agape corpse slumped to the obsidian floor. As the swarm withdrew from Cosus' porous, pulpy head, the nanobots sprayed the room with blood and flesh. Father fell backwards onto his wrists. He tried to scuttle away but slipped on the blood-slicked obsidian floor. He gave up and stared with wide-eyed horror as Zeph aggregated into its anthro-form.

The Guardian Tekkons stopped in their tracks and stared at Cosus' body, the blood, and his spongey, oozing brain. Valin pushed them off themself and hustled to be close to Zeph to avoid the Guardians restraining them again. The Guardians stared at Zeph and then at each other and decided to approach the duo cautiously. They had their orders, even thought their master now lay dead.

Zeph took Valin's hand. "You are free, Valin." At last.

From the floor, Father stuttered and fumbled his tongue until he finally managed, "You knnow... it?"

"Yes."

"We met in the vents yesterday," Zeph said, looking past Valin at Father. "It is not where I expected to find them."

"I don't know what's going on," Valin said to Father. "Please, you have to believe me."

Zeph poked Cosus' head with its foot. It looked out the window to the lime green peak to the northeast. With a swift whip of a nanotentacle, Zeph shattered the window. The room's air rushed to escape into the thin upper atmosphere. Father held his ears in pain and struggled for each breath.

"Know this, human," Zeph started. "Valin and I are Tethered. You will never hurt them."

"The glow in Valin's chest..."

"I told you," Valin said. "I have grown a heart, Father."

"Friend, or foe?" Zeph did not blink.

Father gasped for breath. He couldn't look away from Cosus' exposed, shredded brains: it was sopping blood like water from a sponge. Finally, he looked up at Valin and Zeph with lidded, exhausted eyes, traumatized and solemn.

"Friend," Father said. Neon pink sparks dazzled Valin's head. "You are my project, Valin. I'm sorry I lied to you." Gasp. "I'll never give up on you."

The Guardian Tekkons' attention shifted to Father at this proclamation of allyship with their master's killers. They grabbed him and hauled him to his feet. One held its LethaTek blade to his throat.

"Why?" Valin demanded.

"Your consciousness is like no other," Father wheezed. "I... you are like my own. I see it in your attitude, your mannerisms, your-" The Guardian Tekkon pressed its blade, and a thin line of blood ran down Father's neck.

Blue clouds swelled to the Xeto-body's surface and fizzled away. Other than their eyes, Valin was dark. Midnight indigo tendrils, thin and spindlish, reached from the chasmic depths of Valin's Xeto-body. They sharpened and bedevilled Valin's innermost interior with fractured splits and bolts.

"It creeps from my core, soft and tender," Valin began, pointing to their colours. "Just to spray shrapnel. It hurts, Father. What is this feeling?"

Father stared, stupefied. "Tekkons don't-" Father yelped, the stream of blood thickening. "Forget it. Forget me, Valin. You must go, now!"

"Go?!"

"If you want to live, then go!" Father pointed at Zeph. It was now standing in the broken window, toes over the edge, looking into the smog below. It turned to face Father and Valin. "Go! Cosus' drones will be coming, and the other Elites will send their reinforcements. They'll scrap you, Valin, no doubt! True death!"

Valin turned to Zeph. It extended a hand to them. "He is correct. We must go, now."

Valin looked back at Cosus. His corpse twitched and gasped in death. Fuck it. Fuckit, fuckit, fuckit! Valin stepped over Cosus and took Zeph's hand.

"Good-bye, Valin," Father called as the Guardian Tekkons hauled him through the heavy doors. "Find yourself, kid, and don't ever look back!"

Zeph pulled Valin close to itself and held a hand on their cheek for a moment. Their dream, images of Xeto-flesh flashed through their mind. As the heavy doors ground shut behind Father being hauled away, Zeph pulled Valin by their waist, closer to itself, and they fell through the broken window.

Syncope I: Freedom

Sediment layers blended into shifting gradients of whizzing colour as Zeph and Valin fell. More stars dotted the twilight sky, more than Valin had ever seen. Their Xeto-body mimicked the night's infinite void, and as Valin stared at the stars and forgot about TEXON and the blood, they closed their view-glass and imagined something... better. Gentle. Caring. Among the stars, is there such a thing as... as... love? They thought about ancient Earth literatures that talked about nature and the stars with wonder, love, and whimsy. Then, Gladdare's smog engulfed Valin and Zeph. What is there on Tatrayus like that?

As they plummeted faster and faster yet, Valin imagined that there was a great fire at the bottom of the Chasm that would consume them, a purifying flame that would lick TEXON's corruption from their psyche and skin. The smog was thick and orange. Valin couldn't see Zeph, but they could still feel its presence through the Tether. They reactivated their view-glass, and the smog began to thin. Valin looked at Zeph's silhouette in the smog and felt the Tether pulse. How did you know, Zeph? Why did you come? In the pulse of the Tether, Valin felt like their own being for the first time. They knew at last they were free, no longer a tool or a means to an end. They were no longer just a piece of cybertek meant to serve a company. They meant more than that to people, now, to Zeph, and also Father, too, apparently. Valin's Xeto-body crackled again in the indigo horror. His idea...

As the smog thinned into a mist, the huge chrome bulbs atop the telecomm towers came into view beneath them. The largest one, which carried and transmitted more data than the rest of the towers combined, began to collect static and energy as it consolidated city-wide communications data. As the bulb pulsated with energy, its surface warped and shifted. Its metal sheen wobbled and rippled, and it stretched and compressed into different shapes and sizes. The shifting transfixed Valin's attention, so much so they didn't realize the danger they were in when the bulb would inevitably fire its data across the Chasm. Zeph, knowing better, moved to collide with Valin, knocking their attention free. They fell together again as the tower then thundered an enormous bolt of plasma across the Chasm. If not for Zeph, Valin surely would have been fried in the crossfire. They whizzed past the smaller telecomm towers, avoiding the bulbs and lines of fire.

"The hoverways are next," Zeph called. "They will be there waiting for us, Valin! Stay steady, and let me-"

Without finishing its instruction, Zeph swarmed. The hoverway, once a glimmering line of golden light from TEXON Inc. was now thousands of individual hovercars beaming through the Chasm. And Zeph was right: TEXON's Enforcement vehicles were waiting for them. As Valin and Zeph got closer, Zeph swarmed around Valin, forming something like a cocoon, encasing them in nanobots before solidifying into a hoverpod-like vehicle around them. As the pod's shell solidfied, Valin watched controls and switches and buttons assemble around them.

"Listen to me very carefully, Valin." Zeph's voice came from speakers on the dashboard. "What I am forming around you is a tactical hoverpod. The controls you see in front of you are the pod's plasma beams."

"You've got guns in this thing?!"

"Listen! You cannot control the pod. It is still me. But I am vulnerable in this form. Your job is to keep the pigs off me, okay?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Activating electromag generators... Okay. Their instruments are jammed, so they must fire at line-of-sight to hit us. And they can no longer communicate."

"That's so fucking cool."

The TEXON Enforcement vehicles blared their sirens, and Zeph banked to zip atop the hoverway's main line of traffic. Valin took hold of the sticks in front of them, and a holographic screen projected onto the 180-degree windshield. As Valin moved the joysticks left-right-forward-back, so too the pod's plasma guns took aim. "Targets in pursuit," Valin said, locked the fuck in. They swiveled the plasma guns behind the pod. "Locked."

"Do not hesitate," Zeph said. "These Enforcers are wholly machine."

Valin squeezed the triggers, and the pod rumbled with the energy of every beam of plasma shot. "You pack a punch!"

"Yes."

The Enforcers hurled aside, then barrel rolled to dodge the locked plasma beams. They spun around a few times more before returning to their pursuit course. The Enforcers propelled forward, gaining on Zeph and Valin. Valin locked target again, but before they got a clear shot, Zeph dove out of the Enforcer's firing line as a spray of energy beams screamed past. "Open target," it said when the beams had gone.

"Firing!"

Valin squeezed the triggers again. A plasma beam collided with the firing Enforcer, and the projectile exploded into a field of energy. The Enforcer pod spat electricity as it shorted before going offline, plummeting, and exploding on the cliffside below. Another Enforcer was caught in the overload field and quickly met the same fate.

"Excellent," Zeph said. "Activating thrusters..." The pod's velocity jumped, and in seconds Valin and Zeph had a greater lead on the Enforcers. A button on the dashboard flashed. "This is the toggle to change ammo-types," Zeph explained. "Those ones were the overload beams. You can switch to torpedo missiles."

"Holy shit."

"These are not toys, Valin."

"You really think I think so," they huffed. "Do we need missiles for cops?"

The pod swerved up, jostling Valin. As they ascended to the sky, Valin heard the deep hum of a hover engine much larger than anything Zeph's nanobots would be able to configure.

"TEXON has released its SWAT Enforcer. Do you hear it?"

"Yeah," Valin laughed. "Just point us in its direction and I'll blow it out of the sky."

"Valin, this ship is manned. It is not entirely machine."

The humming reverberated through the pod. Zeph kept them on their vertical trajectory. The SWAT Enforcer moved into their path, and Zeph swerved to avoid collision.

"Who?"

"Your former colleagues, no doubt."

"Shit."

Valin had the freedom they'd desired since their Awakening. The Xeto-body's core swirled in emerald worry. It's possible Omegi and Delti could be operating the SWAT Enforcer. I wanted to escape, and I got it. Do they deserve to die pursuing me? A neon yellow bolt erupted in the pit of Valin's stomach. Could they have Father in there? To prove his allegiance to TEXON despite me?

"I can't do it," Valin said. "No. I won't."

"Is now the time for sentimentality?"

"They don't deserve to die, Zeph."

"If I understand the ranking system of Tekkons properly, then them being blown to smithereens would be a great honour for their next iterations. Their weapons are powering, Valin."

"Shit," Valin said. "But they'll know it was me that killed them. They'll come for me."

"Maybe they will respect you more for it."

The pod continued to evade collision with the SWAT Enforcer's spray of beams. Multiple times Valin had an opening to fire the missiles and be rid of the pursuit, but they wouldn't.

"I cannot avoid them forever, Valin," Zeph said. "What are you doing?"

Valin's finger quivered on the triggers. "Alright. Standing by."

The pod skipped and drifted, following its trajectory while turning to face the SWAT Enforcer. "Open."

"Firing!"

Valin pressed the missile release, a very small action for its consequences. The pod recoiled, and the missile went whistling through the air and smog. Hopping once again, the pod came out of its drift and faced forward. It came about as the missile collided with the SWAT Enforcer. The impact radiated a blast of hot air and energy.

"Brace," Zeph announced as the wave rippled through them. The pod rolled with the energy and then reoriented. Then, it whirred, nodded, and plunged into the Chasm. The remaining Enforcers retreated, not by sentient decision to preserve their beings, but because someone somewhere was watching and recalled them after the SWAT vessel was destroyed.

"Well done, Valin."

"Don't," they replied. "Don't."

Zeph plotted their course toward District Gamma on the Chasm's western cliffside.

Chapter 3, Part I: To Awaken...

The most dilapidated and lonely part of Gladdare, District Gamma was responsible for manufacturing nearly everything in the city. Those who lived here worked in the factories in the District's V-Ward. These were the most important buildings in Gladdare, built on the Chasm's western cliffside's only remaining plateau, surrounded by the violently unstable Trench. To the West of this plateau was the Abyss itself: a continental shelf that plummeted to no end. On Earth, the oceans concealed these continental drop offs, but on Tatrayus, the Abyss stared back. Minor collapses occurred at least once a week, eating away at the dwindling rock holding up Gamma V-Ward, and they were only becoming more frequent. Even with his wallet on the verge of collapse, Cosus never concerned himself with citizen wellbeing or the structural integrity of the factories, and neither did his predecessors who built the place. He was happy to let homes and businesses dangle and fall, and to leave his citizens, his workers, crushed in the rubble. Of course, so long as the facilites that made him money and its workers were intact enough to keep the place running.

"It was lethal like none before it,"Omegi's voice rang through Valin's head.

"I saw it from up here," Valin had said. "It didn't look that dramatic."

"I was almost Omegi-6!"

"All those people... They died?" Valin remembered the slate gray light that had grit in the pit of their Xeto-body. The memory was from when Valin had only been active for a few days. They were learning that there were a lot of things to fear in this sick, crumbling world. To witness a mass-killing through TEXON's glass floors like a sports game on the holovision was harrowing, and being powerless to end the madness was complacency.

"Everyone on the northern cliffside of Gamma IV-Ward is dead!" Arqi-3 had declared with pride. Arqi was in Omegi's senior recon sector. Valin had only met it that once and never saw it again.

"Why would you kill them?" Younger Valin hadn't understood. The only mission they'd been on at that point was to investigate a potential voidspace credit mining operation in District Alpha on the Chasm's stable, eastern plateau, the wealthiest part of Gladdare. Valin and Delti had busted into a dingy slumlord's basement apartment and found two guys jacked into voidspace. It was an illegal virtual realm, only accessible while bugged out on ectoxetine, or E-DOX on the street, an illegal but popular neuro-chem. It shot right into a NeuroTek brain chip originally designed to treat mental health conditions like addiction, but everything had it exploits and hacks. The men were so high they didn't notice when Delti hacked into their NeuroTek and neutralized the E-DOX 'til their chips' motherboards shorted and fried. And the guys hadn't even been in voidspace to mine credit. They just wanted to get high and soar unembodied in the void, ogling the floating credit and data bytes. Valin and Delti had left the guys after that to sober up.

"It was part of the largest ectoxetine operations in Gladdare," Arqi had explained. "Too much credit flowing from Alpha to Gamma IV-Ward. Had to cut them off!"

"We ensured enough survived to keep manufacturing operational," Omegi had added. "So, do not concern yourself with the death toll, Valin. All is well for TEXON Inc."

There was no doubt that Cosus' TekkOps team would have found new "workers" in no time. In this case, he had made sure to have found people who wouldn't have had a single clue what E-DOX was, let alone how much credit there was to be made from it. Some people were hauled up from the Depths beneath the Barrier, irradiated labourers who were only alive for long enough to rebuild some housing. Others were brought from off-world, usually from grounded populations on planets or moons that didn't have space travel. The abductees were confused and separated from everything they knew. Either way, most of the labour in District Gamma was slavery: coercive, un(der)paid, and lethal labour.

Gamma was far from Gladdare's other Districts, and it wasn't a popular tourist destination. Those who lived and worked there knew everyone in their Ward. Zeph and Valin were outsiders, new faces. At last, Zeph's pod glided into Gamma V-Ward, a residential area for the most part, one at lower risk for collapse: it shared the southwestern plateau next to the Xetonon Neutralization Facility. There, raw Xetonon has hoisted up from the Depths and refined into a more stable isotope. The surrounding facilities took the refined Xetonon and created all sorts of pieces of cybertek: for civilian use, bot use, and covert 'tek reserved for the Elites and their TekkOps sectors. Most people living in Gamma V-Ward were the higher-ups in the neutralization and manufacturing industries. They lived atop the stable plateau while low-class, foreign workers and slaves lived on the cliffs of the trecherous Gamma IV-Ward.

Zeph swarmed, disassembling the pod. Valin landed on the cobblestone ground with a thud as Zeph anthropomorphized beside them. Shops surrounded the small, open plaza. A street hovercar whizzed through about every ten minutes, exchanging passengers arriving and departing for other Gamma Wards.

"We have to move," Zeph said. "I have no doubt that TEXON is still pursuing us, despite withdrawing the Enforcers." Zeph pointed skyward at the smog. "TEXON is an all-watchful eye, Valin."

"Where are we gonna go?" Valin asked when Zeph grabbed their wrist and started into the V-Ward alleyways.

"The eye penetrates the smog," Zeph said. "But it cannot pierce the Barrier. Come with me."

Zeph led Valin into the neon labyrinth of alleyways between Gamma V-Ward's skyscrapers, away from the manufacturing zone. The smog thickened, clinging to the buildings like an expanding neon nebula. It wasn't heavy enough to obscure immediate sight, but as Valin looked up, buildings disappeared well before their tops. They came to a narrower alleyway between two massive apartments, a part of Gamma V-Ward known as Ishenin Way. Zeph and Valin climbed one of many fire escapes that led to vertically stacked Platforms running through the alley.

"Tell me, Valin," Zeph started. "Are you afraid?"

"Depends on what you mean."

"What came to mind first?"

For a moment, Valin listened to their footsteps on the metal fire escape. "Yes, I am afraid."

"Of what?"

Pause. "Death."

Zeph eyed Valin, its LED expression churning into... sympathy? "You have nothing to fear there, Valin."

Zeph stepped off the staircase, walking Valin onto the metal grate landing of Platform-3. Beneath their feet, Valin could see Platform-2, and below that, the ground of the alleyway, all lit and busy in the night. They looked up to Platform-4 and -5 and by -6 all Valin could see what colourful neon nebulaeic smog. The main square of Gamma V-Ward may have been quiet in the twilight; it was a better funded and maintained area. But the Platforms of Ishenin Way never slept. Valin and Zeph packed into the dance of commerce and rabble. Tablecloths and bedsheets and tapestries hung along the undersides of most parts of the Platforms to catch grime and debris from people walking above. The neon store lights that filtered through the various textures and patterns and colours created the perfect venue for what Valin thought was the most diverse group of beings they'd ever seen. Their Xeto-body illuminated the smog around them as pink tendrils like lines of smoke swirled from within. They looked as though they could manipulate the colours of Platform-3's nebula, as if their colours were leaking through their skin. An illusion, of course, but one that made Valin feel... powerful.

Every being walking the Platforms of Ishenin Way was altered somehow. A man who'd replaced his jaw with a gas filtration system passed Valin and Zeph. His eyes were bulbs of light that bore into those he looked at. He caught Valin's stare, and even he looked away. His filtration system was modeled like a gas mask with one puck-shaped filter protruding from his skull like a snout. Valin was relieved that the two of them blended in better than they thought they would. Cybertek limbs were more common than not, and Valin wondered how many people still had original organic parts and if there was anyone without an augmentation whatsoever. Some people had entire sections of their bodies replaced with AnthroTek or other 'teks that didn't resemble any known organic species. Some people slithered with snake-like 'tek bodies, others pulled themselves along the Platform with tentacles and suction cups. Some opted for insect-like eye replacements to see more colours and details, and others with entirely new cybertek heads with their original organic brains suspended in synthetic fluid within. Some altered out of necessity, some for practicality, and others for cosmetics. Everything imaginable had an expansive market to meet the demand, but work-based cybertek enhancements had the largest market by far: there were gadgets and gizmos to make anything from physical labour to detective work to scientific research easier, more efficient, and more accurate.

And TEXON owned it all.

Valin looked at their hands, feet, and chest and wondered what augmentations they'd get given the chance. A LethaTek arm like the Guardian Tekkons was a must, and it'd be so cool to have some nanobots like Zeph. And just look at these cosmetic alterations! There were webbed hands, dragon horns like the ones Valin already had, razor nails, tails of all sorts, LED faces and eyes; just about any part of your body that you could think to alter was not only possible but guaranteed to have an established market somewhere just for it. And then there's the street fashion!

Valin wanted to stop and ogle the people around, but Zeph kept a hand tight around their arm and dragged them onwards.

"Where are we going in such a hurry?"

"Somewhere safe," Zeph said.

"But do you even see where we are? Look around you!" As Valin gestured with wide arms and too much enthusiasm, they smacked someone walking by square in the face. She hit the ground, wasted in the impact of Valin's diamond-fibre arm.

"What the fuck," she yelled from the ground, clutching her nose as it bled. Zeph's LED eyes flattened at Valin, and their Xeto-body spasmed with white, trypophobic splotches and fibres.

"Fucking hell," Zeph whispered to itself, extending a hand to the fallen woman. "Please accept my sincerest apologies on behalf of my friend." The woman accepted Zeph's hand, still clutching her bleeding nose with the other. "Sometimes they forget they are made of diamond."

"You should count your lucky stars that they happened to hit me, and not someone else." As the bleeding slowed, she wiped the blood from her face and looked at Valin. "Impressive build. Don't worry about this."

"Thank you," Valin asid, unsure if they were thanking her for the compliment or for her forgiveness. "Um, what's your name? I'm Valin, and this is Zeph."

"I know," she said.

Valin and Zeph looked at each other.

"Oh, I'm Reyna," she said. "You guys'd better hurry out of the open. Media's got your name, Valin, and both of your photos all over the net. I've got a safe place, if you're in need."

"That would be great," Valin beamed. Zeph shoved them by their shoulder. It LED eyes were tilted and red.

"We cannot trust just anybody we run into, Valin!"

Reyna scoffed. "Please. Do I look like a bootlicker to you? My partner and I have hidden people from the Enforcers before. And besides, y'all need some clothes. Nakedness is kinda rude, yeah? Even if you're completely cybernetic?"

Valin hadn't considered their nakedness since Zeph shredded their Lukit. They crossed their arms over their chest, suddenly self-aware, trying to cover their exposed non-genitalia. Zeph, on the other hand, was commpletely unbothered by Reyna's remark. Her eyes darted between Valin and Zeph, her brow furrowed, and a smirk grew on her face.

"You know," she started. "I live and work here on Ishenin Way. Never seen anything like the two of you, ever."

"Oh, thanks," Valin said. Zeph's angry eyes hadn't changed.

"Anyway, my partner owns a clothing store on this Platform." Reyna pointed, suggesting they move farther into Ishenin Way. Valin's cheeks dazzled with popping cyan sparkles. They looked at Zeph, who rolled its eye display. "Store's got obsidian slates built into the walls and ceiling." Reyna pointed to the sky. "The sonar can't pierce it, if you're worried."

Zeph's eyes widened, then softened. It looked away in thought. "I will not ask how you managed to accomplish that."

"That's for the best," Reyna chuckled.

"So, we can stay here," Valin said. "There's so much... everything. Look around! Nobody even cares who, or what, we are."

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Reyna retorted. "We'd better hurry on into the store before the wrong kind of person recognizes you from the media reports. And seriously, you could really use some clothes. You'd fit in better, if keeping a low profile is really that important to you. And besides, what threat could I possibly pose to either of you? You're made of diamond, yeah?"

Valin jumped in place. Made of diamond! Woohoo! King of the world! Valin wanted to pound their chest and send a roar ringing thoughout Ishenin Way.

"Exactly," Valin said, poking Zeph, who was still completely unimpressed with their behaviour.

"It could be a trap," Zeph insisted.

"A trap? How would she have known that I was going to be right here right now and that I was going to hit her and start all this, hm? That's too convenient."

Zeph said nothing.

"Besides, if clothes will help me blend in here..." Valin trailed off for a moment and looked around the Platform. Reyna was right: everyone was clothed, even on their sexless cybernetic bodies. Some were without much effort, just a comfortable outfit for daily errands, and others had more accessorized and organized looks. "Come on, please? I'm dying to try the fashion! Let me live."

"You behave like a child," Zeph rasped. The violet glowing in Valin's chest flickered and burned along their Xeto-wires. "We are not staying here for long, and where we are going, the clothes will stick out like our nakedness does here."

Flickering, like candlelight disturbed by a breath.

"Fine." Zeph looked away, pondering its next words. "But if something happens and we must make a high profile escape again, then I shred the new drip like your Lukit."

Valin gasped. A bright dazzling cyan twisted all over their Xeto-body. "Alright! Let's go!"

"This way," Reyna said.

As the three of them walked Platform-3, Valin ogled the neon wonders of the corridor. Guide signs flickered and buzzed on blank walls between stores, some suspended overhead too. The speakers on each visual display were a normal part of Ishenin Way's din. Valin remembered everyone is illiterate, so the signs have to speak to guide the way, to advertise, and whatever else they do. As they walked beneath a sign, it announced that they were headed toward Gamma IV-Ward: Ishenin Way northbound leads to Gamma IV-Ward, a robotic voice announced.

Reyna had a particular skip in her step. She must be happy to have new company.

"This is the street's cybertek repair shop," Reyna said, gesturing left. "You know, I don't see people in there too often. Wonder how it's still operating." The store was bright with white, fluorescent lights, and all sorts of 'tek parts and pieces lined the walls and were spread on tables for browsing. Valin couldn't recognize any of it. None of it looked TEXON, even though they were in the company's manufacturing hub.

Reyna continued: "Across from it is the Ward's favourite bite: Jojin's Galactic Cuisine. He serves the widest collection of multicultural cuisine that caters to every species' dietary differences. Doesn't matter where in the galaxy you come from, one of the United Worlds or a grounded world TEXON stole you from, Jojin will have something for you. Unless you're the first of your kind here, of course."

"What happens then?"

"Then Jojin'll probably wanna hire you," Reyna said. "To provide your dietary needs, first and foremost, and because he'd want to compare your species' cuisine's organic chemistry with others so he knows what you can eat. He likes to experiment with making cross-cultural dishes for more people to enjoy. And he'd want to be able to provide for those of your kind who'd arrive after you."

"He sounds like a good guy," Valin said. "I wish I had a digestive system. And a sense of taste."

"You strike me as the kind who'd enjoy In'ah cuisine," Reyna said. "If you could, of course."

Valin shrugged. "I'm not familiar with the In'ah."

"They're from a United World," Reyna explained. "You know the praying mantis bug from Earth?"

"No."

"Well, hang on." Reyna pulled a small device from her pocket. Valin had seen Father use this kind of mobile cybertek device before. She spoke into the device and then showed Valin the screen.

"Oh..."

"That's a mantis from Earth," Reyna said. "The In'ah are very similar. Don't react like that if you meet one, though."

"Right."

"They're deeply spiritual and peaceful people," Reyna explained. "They were part of Galaxia United before Earth and humans were even in the picture. Actually, Earth was introduced into the galactic community because we'd thought we'd discovered the In'ah homeworld when we first got there. Leave it to ancient Earth imperialism to assume discovery of an already well-known place. Just not to us."

"The In'ah introduced humanity to Galaxia United?"

"Yeah," Reyna said. "When we nuked their capitals from orbit. We killed millions, injured and displaced a few hundred times that, and irradiated most of their planet with nuclear waste."

"Why bomb the In'ah? Why not try to communicate at first contact?"

"Humanity was after resources and a habitable planet," Reyna said. "So, when we figured out interstellar travel, of course it was the wealthiest of our countries who set out to colonize the stars. A habitable place already populated with a people who'd be opposed to exploitation and colonization and giving up their homelands? Genocide. Problem solved."

"Why?"

"Because we just about killed Earth, and every living thing on it. It's a deranged violence that human colonizers are addicted to. Like, why would you nuke the planet you want to move onto?"

"So, what's the deal with Tatrayus?"

"Same thing," Reyna said. "There was some life here. No people, but microbes 'n' shit. It's a desert planet. Maybe there were some shrubs and cacti and insects too, but they're long gone. Still plenty of Xetonon, though. Endless profit to be had here and nothing standing in the way. Here on Ishenin Way, at least, we have a sense of community despite it all."

"I am curious," Zeph chimed in. "What augmentations do you have?"

"Oh, no," Reyna said. "I'm still pretty young. I haven't decided what I want yet, or if I want. Plenty of humans get 'tek younger than me, but, I just want to be sure."

Reyna had led Zeph and Valin to the end of Ishenin Way. The Platforms continued along cliffsides that dropped into Gamma IV-Ward. To the right was her partner's clothing store. Reyna held her device to the store's sign. Its speakers came to life and revved with a heavy guitar riff and a man's voice declaring, WELCOME TO THE MOSH PITT! The store had a few mannequins in the front window, each a different species with varying styles and aesthetics of clothing. The human mannequin was dressed in a punk outfit with hipped denim and leather and patches. The other few were dressed in styles from their homeworlds.

"Everything here is upcycled. Nothing like reducing our consumption on a planet being devoured by corporate greed, yeah?" Reyna laughed and winked at Valin. She held the metal-barred glass door open for Zeph and Valin and went inside after them. She walked toward the back with purpose and called out, "Pitt! Pitt, we've got special company!"

The Mosh Pitt was a small, grungy space. Eclectic. Pitt had a bit of everything for sale: boxes were stacked on top of display shelving, which didn't seem to have any system of organization. Some nooks were so narrow that Valin couldn't squeeze through without knocking stuff over. Hung from this post here and that one there and those ones over there were sets upon sets of every type of jewelry you could imagine, every piercing for every species that inhabited District Gamma: cultural pieces, religious iconography, spiritual symbols, political statement pieces; video game logos, walls of anime trinkets and pieces, and, of course, generic jewelries in various visual aesthetics. There was voidcore, dreamcore, steampunk, dungeonpunk, cyberpunk, vaporwave, and so many more styles.

A shoddy door behind the sales counter opened, and a tall, well-built person emerged. Her head was shaved except for her sideburns, which were braided just past shoulder length and dyed a bright, blood red. No eyebrows. A metric fuckton of facial and ear piercings. Holy shit. Her outfit was like the human mannequin's: a crimson denim jacked with its arms torn away, a skull-wearing-sunglasses graphic printed on a tight, black, mock-neck tank top, the baggiest military green cargo pants that were nearly torn to threads revealed a close-knit fishnet bodysuit beneath. Beat-up high-rise platform sneakers. An ultramarine blue 'tek visor that obscured her eyes. She let the visor slip to the bottom of her nose, and the holo-display minimized.

"Holy shit," Pitt said. "Never thought I'd lay eyes on a Tekkon and live to tell the tale." She turned to Zeph. "I'm not sure about you," she said before turning back to Valin. "But you are a Tekkon."

Dark grey-silver spikes pulsated from Valin's core, vying with an electric purple ripple. They were stupefied and didn't know whether to go with it or leave, right now, immediately, before Zeph was right and this turned out to be a trap.

"But," Pitt continued. "You don't... seem like it."

"What do you mean?" The spikes dropped and shattered.

"You aren't so... stiff. You seem to have a conscience. Humanity, even."

Humanity? The electric purple overwhelmed the Xeto-body. The Tether's filaments rippled like a deep space quasar down Valin's back, shattering all purple in its wake. Then, Valin fell dark.

"Valin is Tekkon," Zeph said. "But they are different, too." The Tether twisted into bunches of viridian swirls that crept their way to Valin's cheeks.

"Brilliant colours..." Pitt cooed.

"TEXON used an experimental AI to generate my personality," Valin explained. "They don't really know what went wrong."

"That is so fucking cool!!" Pitt hopped the counter.

(TBC)