Oneness

In the mid-22nd century, Earth has lived under the Machine's iron rule for a century and a half. Total control, total order, total silence. Then Rainbolt arrives: a convict escaped from Mars, carrying a dangerous idea called Oneness. When the Machine captures him, its directors attempt the ultimate extraction - drugging him, stimulating his nerves, drilling into his mind for the secrets of the Mars colonies' revolutionary stardrive. But Oneness is more than a philosophy. It's a way of being with another person that can't be forced, only shared. And Rainbolt shares it with his captors in ways they never anticipated. What begins as an interrogation becomes something else entirely: a gentle, inexorable invasion of the self. The Machine was built to eliminate unpredictability. It never accounted for a man who could make you feel what he feels. This is a story about the most radical act of rebellion: letting someone else in.