“Maybe, if any of it is real and not the world’s worst exfactor stunt. If they get everyone to stop taking pills and give bots equals rights, humanity is screwed.”

Oscar shrugged. “Maybe they deserve to win. No matter what we try, we can’t keep up with the machines. All I do these days is watch the bots work. Make sure they don’t mess anything up. It’s boring as hell, and the pay is worse.”

“I get it, Papa. That’s why I like shielding, and why I became a Raider. Regular soldiers don’t get much action, either. They babysit the bots, or if they’re lucky, they get to pilot them remotely.” They’d ridden this conversational merry-go-round before. Next, her father would scold her about ditching college in spite of her flow restriction. She changed the subject. “Did you see the forecast? Big dust storm tomorrow. Shouldn’t we be sealing up the house? Covering the solar cells?”

Oscar stubbornly insisted on staying in the home he and her mother had inherited from Welga’s grandparents. Worse, he wouldn’t let her and Luis update the structure. Half the neighborhood lay vacant and falling apart. The old-fashioned, single-family dwellings didn’t come with solar windows or reconfigurable interiors, and the government of Phoenix had incentivized people to move into the high-density hives of downtown. Between the storms and the environmental impact, consolidating humanity made sense. Suburban living was nearly a relic, not unlike her father.

“You rest.” Oscar held out an arm to help her from the hammock. “Your body is your work. I’ll deal with the storm prep after I get you inside.”

“You should let me rent you a care-bot.”

“Not in my house.”

The cool air of the interior lifted away some of Welga’s exhaustion. The last care-bot to cross the threshold had watched over her mother’s hospice care. Welga couldn’t blame her father for hating them. She’d felt the same way, though she’d gotten over it when she grew up. Her mother’s pill-making equipment sat enshrined on a side table against one wall of the living room. Welga had learned the basics of biogenetic engineering on that gear long before she went to college for it. Those skills had served her well the first year, but after that, she couldn’t keep up with the other students. They used flow. She didn’t.