CHAPTER ONE: ONE YEAR LATER
Jonah Vale had learned that saving the world did not make grocery shopping easier.
“Too expensive.”
We require it.
“You require everything.”
Jonah stared at the enormous container of electrolyte powder in his hand.
Veyr answered from somewhere beneath his ribs.
Correct.
Jonah put it in the trolley.
“You’re paying eventually.”
I have legal personhood.
“Yes.”
Therefore I can acquire employment.
Jonah stopped.
A woman farther down the aisle glanced at him.
He pretended to read a cereal box.
“You live inside my bloodstream.”
Remote employment.
Jonah almost laughed.
“That is somehow the least ridiculous thing you’ve suggested.”
One year.
One year since Halcyon collapsed.
One year since Project Symbiosis became public.
One year since the world discovered Jonah Vale was sharing his body with a sentient engineered organism.
And somehow—
this was life now.
People still stared.
Some recognized him immediately.
Others needed a second.
A man near checkout whispered to his wife.
A teenager lifted a phone.
Jonah ignored both.
Veyr did not.
Camera.
“I know.”
He is recording.
“I know.”
I can obstruct.
“No.”
A thin black filament started beneath Jonah’s sleeve.
He stopped walking.
“Veyr.”
The filament disappeared.
No violence.
“That includes biological vandalism.”
Unclear rule.
“It’s clear now.”
The teenager lowered his phone when Jonah looked toward him.
Good.
No transformation required.
Progress.
Outside the supermarket, a delivery vehicle jumped the curb.
Jonah heard the tyres first.
Then screaming.
A driver had lost control.
The van struck a parked car and flipped onto its side.
People scattered.
Jonah dropped the grocery bag.
Veyr reacted instantly.
Three injured.
Jonah was already moving.
“Anyone trapped?”
Two.
The van began smoking.
Jonah reached it.
A woman inside was hanging from her seatbelt.
A child was crying behind her.
Someone shouted:
“GET BACK! IT COULD BLOW!”
Jonah placed both hands against twisted rear door.
“Veyr.”
Minimal.
Black organic material flowed over his forearms.
Not the heavy armor of his first year.
Cleaner now.
Thinner.
More efficient.
Blue lines flickered beneath the glossy surface.
Jonah pulled.
Metal bent.
The door came away.
Gasps behind him.
He ignored them.
“Kid first.”
A narrow black strand extended through the wreckage, wrapped gently around the child’s waist and guided him toward Jonah.
No crushing strength.
No panic.
Precision.
Jonah caught him.
“You okay?”
The boy stared at Jonah’s transformed arm.
“Are you Veyr?”
Inside Jonah:
Incorrect.
Jonah smiled.
“I’m Jonah.”
A pause.
“Veyr’s the rude one.”
Rude.
The boy laughed through tears.
Good.
Fire crews arrived.
Jonah helped remove the driver.
Then stepped away.
His armor withdrew before cameras could get closer.
No metabolic crash.
No trembling.
A year ago, the same rescue might have cost him half a day.
Now?
His pulse barely changed.
Jonah noticed.
So did Veyr.
Better.
“More efficient.”
Evolution.
Jonah’s smile disappeared slightly.
That word had been appearing more often lately.
Veyr noticed.
You dislike word.
“No.”
Lie.
Jonah picked up what remained of his groceries.
“I dislike where that word tends to lead.”
Veyr became quiet.
Tessa Vale was waiting at Jonah’s apartment.
She held up a news article before he even closed the door.
“You’re trending.”
Jonah groaned.
“Already?”
“Delivery van.”
“That was twenty minutes ago.”
“Internet.”
“Terrible invention.”
Veyr whispered:
Echo likes internet.
“Echo has terrible judgment.”
Tessa looked toward Jonah’s chest.
“Tell Veyr I heard that.”
Safe Tessa hostile.
Jonah smiled.
“She knows.”
Tessa inspected him.
“No injury?”
“No.”
“Metabolic drop?”
“No.”
“Headache?”
“No.”
She narrowed eyes.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“The jaw.”
Jonah sighed.
“Veyr used less tissue.”
Tessa waited.
“That’s good.”
“Probably.”
Banned.
Jonah closed his eyes.
“Still hate that.”
Tessa laughed.
His phone vibrated.
Lena.
Jonah answered.
“Please tell me nothing exploded.”
Dr. Lena Orlov did not laugh.
That was wrong.
“Jonah.”
He stood straighter.
“What happened?”
“I need you at Echo’s facility.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Then:
“Veyr may already know.”
Inside Jonah—
something shifted.
A pressure behind his eyes.
Not pain.
Recognition.
Veyr whispered:
Signal.
Jonah froze.
“You feel something?”
Yes.
“How long?”
Silence.
Jonah’s expression hardened.
“Veyr.”
Three nights.
Tessa noticed.
“What?”
Jonah ignored her.
“You hid this for three days?”
Was small.
“What signal?”
Veyr struggled.
Old.
That word turned the room cold.
Echo’s facility was thirty minutes away.
By the time Jonah arrived, Sabine Rowe and Mara Ellis were already there.
Nera and Rin had reacted too.
Three bonded pairs.
All experiencing the same thing.
Echo’s core pulsed behind reinforced glass.
Its synthetic voice came through speakers.
THE SIGNAL IS NOT MINE.
Jonah stared.
“Can you locate it?”
NO.
“Identify?”
NO.
Veyr reacted.
A memory flashed through Jonah.
White laboratory walls.
Older technology.
A woman screaming.
Something black reaching toward her.
Jonah staggered.
Lena caught his arm.
“What?”
“That wasn’t mine.”
Veyr panicked.
Not mine either.
Jonah looked inward.
“Then whose?”
No answer.
Echo pulsed violently.
Every monitor in the room changed simultaneously.
Static.
Then a line of text appeared.
No one had typed it.
WE REMEMBER YOU.
Veyr went completely still.
A second line appeared.
VR-7.
Jonah felt Veyr’s fear.
Third line.
YOU WERE NOT THE FIRST.
Sabine stared.
Mara whispered:
“What the hell?”
The monitors went black.
Then one final message appeared.
THE FIRST BOND IS AWAKE.
Jonah stared at the words.
One year of learning how to live with Veyr.
One year believing Halcyon had created the first successful relationship between human and organism.
One year believing they understood where this began.
Apparently—
they understood nothing.
