In a spherical city populated with giant cyborgs, a renegade surgeon lives beneath the cracks in its foundation. Helcion Brixton has embarked on a life few others choose, and she rarely receives visitors in her self-imposed exile. When a friend arrives with a sick robot, and soon falls victim to the same disease, she's surprised and concerned, for more reasons than the obvious.
Brixton, because she's lived hidden among the cyborg Controllers for more than a decade, has a deep understanding of their culture. When riots and revolts spread, triggered by the disease, she learns that the root of the phenomenon reaches above them to their AI parents. Controllers have an absolute obedience to their parents, considering them unto gods, and Brixton herself knows little about them. To fight the threat, Brixton will reach out to a clever criminal, a feral programmer and a traitorous Controller.
Most humans would stand by, hole up in rat holes and let an AI god go mad. Brixton knows that, if Controller society changes for the worse, the human race will suffer with them.
