Before xe died, M-741 was human—but a starship’s systems won’t run themselves. Remade into a maintenance synthetic, xe is stripped of all but xir labour, to keep the rich in orbit while Earth festers. Or rather, that’s what should’ve happened. M-741 has an error in xir programming. A glitch of xir past, a call from someone xe once knew. To answer it is to risk being recycled. To ignore it is to forsake the only thing that remains of xem.