With a jerk, the conveyor suddenly doubled its speed.

The last thing Parity saw was Spreadsheet smirking down at her from the control station. “Perhaps I’m not quite so clichéd after all.”

The best that could be said was it was over fairly quickly.

And yet, it wasn’t over.

Parity woke up, unable to feel her body—except for an annoying itch in her left knee that wouldn’t go away. She was unable to open her eyes, and was overcome by a sense of nausea. Oh great, she thought. I have no mouth and I must barf.

To keep from going crazy, she focused on the itch in her left knee. It seemed to grow sharper the more she worried at it, until it felt less like an itch and more like a live wire against her skin. Live wire… that was it! In an instant, her perspective changed—the wire was a pipe, and she was racing down it. She emerged into a glowing interchange, a space filled a dozen random overlaid three-dimensional etch-a-sketches traced in a thousand neon colors.

Where am I? Cyberspace?