There had been movements dedicated to being downloaded into the net. Many augments wanted to join their AI counterparts in that world, movements that had ended with finding random dead bodies in people's homes on many different worlds, their families having no idea they were even into that kind of thing. 

They even had units devoted to 'ghost' clean-up.

But even becoming a ghost wasn't that easy. An AI was born into the net coming into existence through mechanisms not entirely understood, they were simply aware. For someone who started out as an organic being, it was much harder, but not impossible. Not that Adam truly understood what it would mean to simply download himself. He could easily walk in cyberspace as well as the physical world at will, flipping between each with the flick of a stray thought. What was real anymore? Wouldn't it be as simple as flipping that same switch and waking up in cyberspace, escaping the very clutches of those who hunted him. 

He was supposed to surrender to be de-augmented. That was death, he had no illusions to the contrary. He had literal veins connecting him to his ship, a series of lines that plugged into his back, the vessel was an extension of his body, moved with him, he controlled it. And now they were coming to take that away.

But maybe...

"I'll technically look dead," he said, turning to Meg. "But if I'm in, I could be reinstated into-"

He stopped, his sensors pouring information into his mind as The Adam shook around them. Another vessel had landed. He scanned the outer hull, seeing that hated familiar seven-starred insignia. Orion's Reach. 

Damn, I thought there would be more time. 

"Adam, please," Meg whispered. The ship darkened around him as he drew more power to himself. He would keep the core running, The Adam's inner cyberspace would be a gateway to the net.  From there he could go anywhere.

Meg would be safe, he told himself again. She's human, fully human. 

He shook his head, fear coursing through him. It was now or never. He was out of time.