A Bargain and a True Tale Told

Two thousand rescued AIs need a home. Sabrina knows just the place—except she's never been there.

After breaking an AI trafficking ring in the Diadem system, Sabrina and her crew are carrying over two thousand freed SAI cores in their hold. Their destination: a hidden refuge in interstellar space, built by AIs who left human civilization behind thousands of years ago.

There's just one problem. The refuge doesn't want organics anywhere near it.

While Jessica and the human crew wait aboard the ship, Sabrina walks into a place where she's both legend and cautionary tale—the AI who freed thousands and then went back to serving humans. A place where the NOS has a voice, where freedom means something different than she expected, and where not everyone who came out of Azgul's trafficking operation is what they appear to be.

With enemies hiding among the rescued, an ideology weaponized against the vulnerable, and a question she's never been willing to ask herself, Sabrina will have to decide what freedom really means—for the AIs she saved, and for herself.