24:03, Fifthsol 6th M6, 2226

Jaya pads around Ying's roomy pod, prodding everything with meaty fingers while Ying stands hunched across the room, her lenses seemingly flooded with PCR files and micrographs.

Weaving between sleek furniture in those muted ochre and rust tones popular on Earth, Jaya stops to gawp at a plant. A real plant, bathed in magenta hydroponic lighting as it cascades down one corner of the living area. 

Jaya disguises their awe under a grunt. "If Daiyu hadn't been demoted I bet she'd be able to afford a plant."

I join them to marvel at the creeper, pressing at a thick veiny leaf. Its beauty makes my heart ache. Loving Shiro has shown me a green-and-blue world that I can't unsee, a world beyond the curse of losing my family. My very DNA now yearns for the forests of home, and for Shiro.  Without him every cell in my body feels so tired, like each breath takes monumental grit.

Ying has given us five minutes before she arrests us. When her guards reported five sols ago that the elusive transporter thief had again evaded them she'd been furious. When they'd added that a monster in a doctor's uniform had put them to sleep with the touch of a palm and had absconded with the thief, she'd been absolutely livid. Determined to arrest Shiro and me, she hadn't expected me to turn up in tears on her doorstep sols later with a rogue warden armed with nothing but a broken pulser collimator, a shade pen and a data key full of PCR files.

Pale thing that she is, Ying stands utterly white. Ripples of disgust flit back and forth across her face as she examines horror after horror in her lenses. She blinks away the microscope video footage and returns the data key to Jaya in cupped palms. "Are these things in all of our brains?"

Convinced that Ying detests me too much to believe a word that I say, Jaya has insisted on doing the talking. Their brusque manner and simmering temper isn't helping. "That sample is from the same radiation-resistant nematode worm colony that has been implanted in all Eris-born brains for the past forty years."

Though shaken, Ying doesn't seem in the slightest bit affronted at being fed decades of Isamu Kida's lies about the nature of meatware. I know what Ying is like. She wants her family to join the elite of Eris. She wants her descendants to escape the poverty that she was born into. She's the type who'd keep Megumi Kida's secrets safe to secure a place with Eris's corporate monarchs.

"Can Kida-san install and remove these things at will?"

"No. Kida engineered them to be impervious to all parasite-killing chemicals. Once implanted into a baby's brain, the worms live for around forty years until the host's body's metabolic rate drops too low to support them. Then, the parasite dies."

"Except they aren't parasites," Ying whispers.

"What?"

"They're symbiotes. These nematodes speed up human metabolism to repair radiation damage, but they need us as hosts. Without them we'd get radiation poisoning, and without us they'd die. They're not parasitic to humans. They're symbiotic."

I should have guessed. Too serene after finding out that she's infected with parasites, Ying clearly values the status quo over an uncertain future for Edgers. Whether microchip or worm, in Ying's eyes Kida Biotech's fifty-year experiment on us all is justified in the name of Eris's prosperity.

"Open your fucking eyes, Ying!" Jaya spits, no semblance of courtesy left for the woman they used to refer to as Respected. "Without nematodes we'd just go underground half the time like everyone on Pluto does! All these worms do is let us work twice as hard under radiation. We don't even need to be on the Dwarfs at all. There are other ways to get platinum and cobalt than mining Dwarfs. We could all still be on Earth."

"We've built a home on Eris. A society."

"Society?" A derisive laugh wheezes out of Jaya. Their fists clench. "If you'd bothered to get out of your armoured hov for a second, you'd have seen the riots today. Six people were killed, but all you want is for IndoChina Mining and Kida Biotech to partner up to extend meatware to Pluto. As long as you get your Rupees and your expensive metaverse subscription, you don't care about who lives or dies."

"You're wrong! I want what's best for my family." Ying begins to pace the room. The accusation seems to sting. I can't tell if Ying has been truly moved by Jaya's revelations, or if she simply values her reputation, and that of IndoChina Mining. "I don't have any power here. I can't get an audience with Kida-san, let alone beg him to design a nematicide that would kill his entire life's work. Meatware is too big to stop now."

"You have all the power!" Jaya's voice rings out so loudly that I flinch. It's only a matter of time before despair at losing Daiyu drives Jaya to do something stupid. We'll have to leave soon. "Isamu Kida can't design a nematicide because Megumi turned him into... he's walking dead now."

"Walking dead?"

"Megumi designed a new worm colony. She calls it the Worker Colony. It removes major cognitive functions from the host. She implanted it into Kida-san and... he's like a ghost now. She did the same to my partner, Daiyu. And to her own brother, Shiro Kida."

Jaya nudges me. Evidently it's time for me to speak. I lock eyes with Ying, praying that the Goddess might breathe life into whatever embers of love that Ying has for me.

"He's not an ore thief, Ying. He was trying to escape to Earth. Shiro Kida is the man who stole your 'porter. The man who..." I can't help tears from falling. "I need Shiro back. His other sister, Shyla, might be able to design a nematicide if we can get her safe. Please help us."

Ying's hands shake. She murmurs, "You knew that he was one of Kida-san's children. Is that why you seduced him? To fix your meatware?"

"No! We thought we'd die on the 'porter and... it just happened. Please, Ying. I need Shiro."

"I loved you, and you hid your whole life from me. If you'd told me about your meatware, I'd have understood. Instead you ran away." Ying backs away from me, limbs quivering. She claws at her neck. "And you fell in love with a total stranger just because you could touch him," her eyes spring with tears, "but your touch almost killed me."

Jaya bounds over, their face dangerously close to Ying's. "This isn't about you! This is about developing a nematicide! Megumi Kida could infect all of us with the Worker Colony!"

"And how many people have benefitted from meatware? It's sad that one in a million get a glitch, but everyone else gets to be more resilient, more robust, more—"

"It's not a glitch!" Any feigned subservience that Jaya had ever shown to Ying has long gone. They scream in Ying's face, droplets of spittle landing on a chic Earth-toned shirt. "It's not hardware! It's worms! You saw the microscope videos!"

"What videos? I don't know what you're talking about."

Jaya stares hard at Ying, their eyes almost bulging out of their skull in incredulous horror. They scramble at their belt for a pulser, groaning in rage when they remember that they're unarmed.

I step forward with palms pressed together. "I understand, Ying. You're worried about your job. About your family's welfare. If an immediate investigation into meatware takes place, you'll be hailed as a hero. A whistleblower. This may not be the end of mining. IndoChina can still mine, but with underground facilities and a focus on protecting workers from radiation like on the other Dwarfs. You could become Governor-General of Eris. You could even get a diplomatic passport. You'd be the saviour of Eris. Please, Ying."

Ying's eyes glaze over; she's suddenly deep in her lenses. "You've got thirty seconds to get out before my guards come back."

I drag a screaming Jaya out of the pod by their sleeve and near-tumble into the street. We dash into the dark maze of Eris-1 side-streets just as the thud of turquoise-clad guards' boots echoes from around the corner. Too afraid to run to my pod, I prod Jaya into the now-silent market district until I'm convinced that we've left the guards far behind.

The light of a poster beckons Jaya into an alleyway cluttered with boxes and wisps of torn tarp. Megumi Kida's face smiles out of the poster under a caption: keep warm. Jaya marches up to the poster and pumps their fist through Meg's face. The polymer screen shatters. LED electronics sputter out. Jaya roars a stream of invective into Eris-1's dome before collapsing in tears.