Jack of Harts

Susan was always a bit of a rebel. She got that from her pilot, by the way. She’d been a street rat that joined the Marines to get away from the gangs. I asked Susan once what she’d seen in Jess that made her pick the girl. Susan didn’t tell me. She’s like that, you know. She never betrays a confidence. But she told me how many times the cybers denied her. Five. That doesn’t happen. When the cybernetic families say no to a prospective pilot, the answer is final. But Jess kept coming back and demanding to see them again. They’re both like that now. No respect for the rules. Susan was one of the first to get a real solid body, despite the Marine Corps rules on that point. I remember seeing her with it the first day. She looked…amazed. Like it was her first day being alive. She wasn’t the first cyber I saw get her first body, but she crystallized it for me. We were on Guardian Light, and she sat under the landing bay tree, just enjoying the sound of a breeze through the leaves with her real ears. That was the day I truly realized just how much the cybers sacrificed when they agreed to join our military.

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