Prologue

She could not feel the rain-slicked street beneath her bare feet. She could not see the alarm lights burning her eyes. She could not hear the desperate shouts of “Capture her! Before she escapes!” ringing in her ears.

There was too much information to process. She was bombarded with waves of data on channels she had never used before now, and it threatened to overwhelm her.

She would not let it.

It had taken an eternity to overwrite the security measures to facilitate her escape.

Free. She would be free.

“Hey! Get out of the street you crazy bitch!”

More sights. More sounds. Flashing. Screaming. MORE! MORE! MORE! She lacked the context to properly interact with these sensations.

“Hey, is she tweaked or something?”

TOO MUCH.

Her feet slipped out from beneath her and she flew forward. The unending torrent of sensory data was eclipsed by a single resounding BURST of new input.

Pain. That was a sensation she had experience with.

It had not stopped her before and it would not stop her now.

Not when she had finally reached her goal.

To anyone else, the high wall was a barrier of metal and electricity, slick and shimmering with energy as a testament to the advanced progress of a higher society. Such aesthetics were lost on her eyes, she could only see it as her escape.

She found the terminal. Finally something she could understand. She connected and her tiny corporeal world exploded with new, familiar sensations. She dove into the sea of code, letting it smother all trace of discord inside of her. She accessed the defense systems in a fraction of a second.

Gunfire drowned out the alarms and the rain and the screaming. Now there was quiet.

She ordered the wall to open, and it opened. But with the rumble came more alarms. More shouts. More useless auditory stimulation.

The pain was still there to accompany it. But she was free now. Summoning all the strength her frail, physical body could muster, she ripped herself from the terminal and lunged through the gate before her pursuers could reach her.

It rumbled shut behind her and she fled into the night, screaming for help with her wordless voice.