Just Out of Jupiter's Reach (The Far Reaches, #5)

by Nnedi Okorafor

He had been genetically modified in more ways than I could understand. They’d used tardigrade, jellyfish, algae, and spider DNA; nanotechnology; and parts of him were some form of metal. Yet his DNA was 100 percent compatible with mine. Not one gap in the sequence. This thing was somehow related to me, very directly.

Miri ships were the most revolutionary thing human beings had ever created. They would make us an interstellar species. They were powerful, even sentient creatures, and they were our freedom . . . in a way. Each one imprinted on only one human being, if Kármán could find that one.

But Kármán said this one meeting of seven days would be fine. After that, we were to be alone for the rest of the five years before returning to Earth, if we chose to. If any of us broke this rule and traveled together, we’d forfeit the remaining millions we would earn in that time. Always the threat of losing what we were owed. Typical capitalism.