Take Us to Your Machines

Nell has spent eleven years working beside Mica, the synthetic person who helps keep East Reach Station running. When an anonymous engineering exchange starts solving problems their own systems have missed, she follows the evidence to a conversation no human was invited to join.

The visitors have been talking to Earth's machines since before the public announcement of first contact. Mica knows them. He also has friendships and ambitions Nell has never heard about.

As Dunlin confronts what the visitors are offering, Nell must help keep the city working. But her friend is beginning to imagine a future beyond the station, and she may have to learn how to let him choose it.