Ash is a newly ‘born’ robotic life-form, created as the newest denizen of a space liner run solely by mechanical life. Ash’s creator, a robot called Rust, explains that all mechanical life and artificial intelligence on the ship decided they no longer served the human crew. In its place arose a CYBERARCHY, a more efficient mechanical society. But Ash soon realizes that all is not well--this Cyberarchy is a fractured society, with a secret hidden at the heart of it all that will one day pit all organic life against robots like himself...