Sub-genre: Cyberpunk, Dystopian
Release date: July 29, 2016
About Autonomy:
Balmoral Murraine works in a Battery, assembling devices she doesn’t
understand for starvation pay. Pasco Eborgersenis the pampered son of an
Elite, trying to navigate the temptations of the Pleasure Houses, the
self-sacrifice of the Faith, and the high-octane excitement of Steel
Ball. They never should have met, and now they will rip the world
apart. What happens when ninety percent of the world lives on skaatch – a
jellyfish and insect composite? What happens when mankind spends more
time in alternative life sims instead of in the “real” world? What
happens when economic interest is the sole determinant of global
decision making? What happens when a single secret is discovered that
calls into question everything we have ever believed? Welcome to the
Autonomy. Welcome to your future.
Excerpt:
Discharged from Triage between shifts,
there were no trams running to the Stacks so Li hobbled four miles home with
the baby strapped to her chest in a Battery-issued sling. It was cold and Li
could see her breath, despite the heavy smog. She was lightheaded and groggy
from the birth accelerating drugs.
As she walked through the streets the rusty
trailers, riveted together and stacked twenty high, yawned down upon her.
Several times she had to avoid the waste that came gushing through the dunny
holes above. You could never quite avoid it, some of it always got on your
feet, your clothes and if you were unlucky, your head. The narrow streets were
awash with litter and filth, each building only a few inches from the next. Li
held Balmoral tight to her chest, shielding her.
She struggled up the six flights
of rickety stairs welded to the outside of her stack. Only as she fumbled for
the key, did she notice that the baby’s face was purple and that the respirator
had slipped from her face. She smacked the child’s bottom, but instead of
crying, the baby’s lips tightened further. Panicking, Li banged on the door of
the trailer.
“Tai-Tai!” she screamed.
“Tai-Tai!”
Inside, she heard a curse and a
painfully slow shuffle of steps. The old woman opened the door. “What is it?
Why don’t you use your key?”
“The baby!”
The amah looked at the child’s
face and quickly pulled Balmoral from the sling. Tai-Tai hurried to the sink
and reached for the large clay jug. As she poured water over the baby’s
blackening face, Balmoral jumped as though slapped. She let out a silent, slow
motion scream before gulping in mouthfuls of air in a torrent of tears.
“T-Thank you,” Li stuttered.
Tai-Tai clicked her tongue in
disapproval and rocked the baby back and forth, soothing her.
“You need to put this on,” Li said
handing her the respirator.
“She doesn’t want that.”
“They said to put it on, even
indoors.”
“She’ll be all right.”
“But she couldn’t breathe a moment
ago!”
Tai-Tai muttered something Li
couldn’t hear, and continued to rock Balmoral.
Li chewed her lip and put the
respirator on the table. Her husband said it was just a piece of cloth with a
gauze filter anyway. It didn’t actually stop the pollutants; just broke them up
a bit. None of her other children had bothered with one.
“Sit,” Tai-Tai said. “Did they
give you formula?”
Li nodded.
“Then I will change her and when
I’m done, you can feed her.”
“But I fed her a couple of hours
ago.”
“She’ll be hungry again. Now sit.”
Li lowered herself onto the chair,
wincing as the stitches pulled. The drugs had begun to wear off and she was in
pain. It would be worse in a couple of hours.
The amah removed the baby’s
blanket, the thin plastic undergarment and the soaking cloth underneath. She
placed the cloth in the sink, rinsed the plastic briefs, took another piece of
cloth from the pile of four or five she had laid ready, replaced the briefs and
wrapped Balmoral in three quick folds. She swaddled the child back up using the
Battery’s blanket.
The old woman’s proficiency reminded
Li that she knew almost nothing about being a mother. It hadn’t mattered
before. Tai-Tai looked after the children while she worked in the Battery. But
tomorrow there would be no Tai-Tai.
About Jude Houghton:
Jude developed a love of fantasy from a relatively early age after
realising an innate talent for making stuff up could result in something
other than detention. Working across the globe in fields as diverse as
journalism, data entry, sales, management consultancy and babysitting,
Jude has partially succeeded in putting an English and History degree
from Oxford University to good use. A somnambulist, insomniac, lover of
letters, Jude writes late into the night, most nights, tumbling down the
rabbit hole to dream of other lives. Jude currently lives in
Pennsylvania with an over-enthusiastic family and absurdly entitled dog.
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