Glass Heart

Name: Glass Heart
Author: aurians

by aurians

Free to read at the source

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About

When a tired gamer on Earth follows a strange data signal, he wakes inside a digital dream hosted by Hedri, the damaged artificial intelligence of a hidden alien starship. His body is gone. His choices are worse: fade away, merge into Hedri, or inherit the ship and live as something entirely new. He chooses life. Now calling herself Audri, she awakens as the heart of the battered freighter Glass Heart, a sentient ship stranded near forbidden Earth with two sleeping sisters aboard, a failing hull, illegal cargo in the hold, and no idea how to be an AI. Captain Lirae Orun and engineer Esril Orun expected Hedri, their dignified old ship intelligence. Instead, they get a newly born, deeply anxious, overly affectionate former human who names maintenance drones, summons beanbags during crises, and is trying very hard not to panic every time someone calls her “the ship.” Together, Audri and the Orun sisters limp back into known space, selling dangerous cargo to repair the Glass Heart and taking on a new job bound for Kharos. Along the way, they uncover corporate plots, rescue a corporate fugitive from the identity forced onto her, and begin forming a fragile crew out of people who have all, in one way or another, been remade. But Audri’s existence is rare, valuable, and legally inconvenient. As old records awaken and corporate interests circle, the question becomes sharper than survival: is Audri property, programming, salvage… or a person? And if the galaxy refuses to recognize her as alive, the Glass Heart may have to teach it otherwise. --Cover Art is AI generated, pending replacement by Artist I have commissioned 17/05/26--