Maius stepped into Jiana’s laboratory, fresh from the autosurgeon, to find her seated at a workbench amid a clutter of electronic and mechanical parts. Her face was in her arms, muffling her sobbing.

“Sister—what’s wrong?” Maius asked.

“I am! I was! How could I have been so—” She choked up.

“We will get the Heartstar back,” Maius said. “They can hardly hide a power core that bright. They might have taken us by surprise this time, but—”

“It’s not that!” Jiana said. She got up, walked across the lab to another bench where she picked up a green translucent cube with flecks of gold scattered through it, as if someone had frozen a golden snowfall. “Do you know what this is?”

“Some type of storage medium,” Maius said. “But that was always your—”

“It’s a soul, Maius!” Jiana said, cube shaking as her hand trembled. “They have neural translation technology!”

Maius automatically made a warding gesture and murmured, “Blessed be the Firstbody,” under her breath.

“That’s right,” Jiana said. “Abominations.”