Idyllian by R.Z. Held

SPSFC 2022

Nanite and implant internal technology began in the Pax Romana planetary empire's army, but it hasn't stayed there. Across four novellas and more than a century, two natives of the conquered planet Idyll must each contend with technological abilities thrust upon them without their consent. Genevieve, living in a time of war on her planet, was infected with nanites from a dying super-soldier—nanites that remade her in the image of those super-soldiers. Sienna, caught between the now-aging empire and even more violent rebels, was captured and used in a prisoner exchange in the place of a dead Pax Romana spy—leaving her with that spy’s implant in her head, leaking memories. Can Genevieve and Sienna remain themselves with internal technology taking over their minds? And what can they do when the abilities granted by that hated technology are the only thing that can save the ones they love most?

Clean Install by RZ Held

SFINCS

After being infected with nanites from a dead Pax Romana super-soldier, Genevieve should have died, like every other infected civilian. Instead she survived, remade in the image of the so-called Installs. Unable to truly trust her any longer, her people send her deep into Pax Romana space with a mission: upload a virus to destroy the Install reserves. When she arrives, she finds not the reserves but the self-destructive dregs of the program, the few who didn’t die on the battlefield. Not allowed to retire, these Installs are charged with watching over dying infected civilians—but Genevieve knows those deaths aren't inevitable. To win a chance to save them, all she has to do is confess that she's from a conquered, enemy planet, to the empire's most efficient killers.