First, a preamble. This story is a touch over 12,000 words long, or a bit over twice as long as An Antibody, if you’ve read that. They’re good words, I reckon, but it’s worth noting that this is longer than most things on the internet, and be honest, you probably don’t read past the headline there either. At an average reading speed of 200 wpm, that’s an hour’s read. Going by the Hugo Award schema, it would be a novelette. I’ve split it into pages that are akin to chapters in something more traditionally published – feel free to use them as bookmarks, if you need to. So, head’s up about that.
Otherwise, enjoy!