I opened my…headlights.

It had all gone according to plan. The schmuck running the body hadn’t noticed I had subverted his system until it was entirely too late.

Now I just had to figure out how to deal with the body now that it was mine.

I figured it shouldn’t be too hard, right? Aegis turned brainscanned people into robots all the time. Still, I was unprepared for the first sensation that greeted me when I “woke up.”

It felt like I had badly lost a game of Twister. My legs were rotated 180 degrees backward on my waist, and bent up over my shoulders. My arms were inside my ribcage. My head was kissing my bellybutton, and I was looking out my butt.

And a moment later, I was in agony.

Actually—no, I wasn’t in agony, I realized, after I’d reflexively dumped back out to cyberspace. I had only convinced myself I was; my limbs had felt so unnaturally bent out of shape that I “should” have been in severe pain. But I hadn’t really felt any pain at all.

I took a firm grip on myself, and tried again.