The Proteus Bridge — M.D. Cooper

Croon-ya! Rhymes with ruin-ya!Cruithne Station: an ugly hunk of rock in a wobbly orbit between Mars and Earth. Future Casablanca. Smuggler's paradise. Deep in the Info Jungle. A hive of scum and villainy where anything is had for a price. Croon-ya! So squawk the gray parrots of Cruithne Station's Night Park. How these super-intelligent birds came to occupy a dead fountain in the middle of Sol's criminal underbelly is a story of secret laboratories, uplifted animals and AI experimentation, with a frosty topping of gambling, piracy and totalitarian espionage. For orphans Fugia Wong and Ngoba Starl, growing up in the depths of Cruithne's Lowspin Sector means hustle or die. So they hustle. And they're damn good at it. When friendship with one of the station's famous Gray Parrots opens the door on a secret smuggling operation for illegal AI between InnerSol and Neptune's Proteus, they'll have to choose between the hustle and doing the right thing. Or as Ngoba asks: Why not both? Sometimes winning the game means making your own path. And that path may turn into a bridge that leads not only to Proteus, but to the Sentience Wars.