SKULLCAP . . . . indispensable tech or crippling nightmare? . . . . vital appendage or drug-like crutch? REJUVENATION . . . . gateway to eternal life or doorway to never-ending bondage? . . . . game-changing advance or shackle forged from hardened steel? SLAVE CAMP #5, DOMTAR PROVINCE, VENUS . . . . final resting place for an expendable drone or launchpad to a new horizon? ESCAPE TO FREEDOM . . . . impossible dream or the only true reality? Three planets, three lifetimes. A boy, a man, a slave. What begins with a future constricted by mind-numbing tentacles ends in a faraway dungeon walled-in by a barrier of writhing jungle. Tech that might have been a source of incalculable power becomes instead a tool that suffocates personal freedom.