The journey was a plunge into quiet. The stasis-induced cold that had slain Kai Zorren did not loosen its grip so much as it withdrew, shifting from a solid ice block in his veins to a heavy, deep-seated chill that clung to his bones. He opened his eyes to neither the rough handling of guards, but to the smooth, unobtrusive glide of a transport capsule.
There were no windows, but only the gentle, phosphorescent glow of the walls and the muted hum of machinery that shook through the floor. He lay on a gurney, his limbs weighted but not tied. The atom recall had not paralyzed him; it had only… silenced him. The Glitch, that shuddering symphony of memory and emotion, was gone. Its place was taken by an intimidating quietness, an inner landscape stripped of all content.
He could think, reme
