Major Salateen's struggle to reclaim his identity and authority from a doppelgänger android while executing a critical deception operation to deceive Sharaz Jek and protect Peri Brown

General Chellak’s trusted aide Major Salateen is forced into the Operations Room by the real Salateen, who has just escaped Sharaz Jek’s captivity. The revelation strikes with brutal clarity—General Chellak …

Peri drifts back toward consciousness in Jek’s grim clutches as he vengefully pivots from tender conditioning to a raging monologue. His earlier threats of a new world curdle into a …