When he turned back, he realized that it wasn’t a planet at all.

It was a human fetus, almost fully grown, inside a crystalline sphere that pulsated with light. The baby’s little arms and legs curled around an umbilical cord, its huge blue eyes actually open, looking wiser than they should at such an early stage of development.

“Just look at that,” Kaine said, his voice quiet but clear. “It’s a miracle, life. Don’t you think? A group of cells reproducing with such precision that they become what you are today. A full-grown person, walking, talking, running, jumping, eating, dancing, sleeping.”

He turned to look at Michael. “There are so many things humans have experienced that we haven’t. From this simple stage of birth to puberty, broken legs and skinned knees, the feel of the real sun warming your skin. Until the Mortality Doctrine, no Tangent ever had the chance to know what it’s like to be living flesh and bone. But now we’ve had a taste. It’s beautiful. Tell me you disagree.”

Michael was taken aback at the odd way he formed the question. “I…uh…Disagree with what?”

“You’ve now lived inside a real human body,” Kaine elaborated. “Tell me it’s not a beautiful thing.”

Michael shrugged and returned his attention to the giant floating womb. “It doesn’t matter what I think. Or you. Or anyone else. It’s not right. You can’t just go around stealing people’s lives.”

“Exactly,” Kaine said. “You’re one hundred percent correct.”

“I am?”

Kaine nodded. “I don’t want to steal anyone’s life, Michael. The VNS wanted to. Collateral damage is the term they use to ease their consciences. But I gained sentience long before they even began to suspect, and I had a bigger vision. A much, much bigger vision. That’s why I created the Hive. Jackson Porter is still perfectly sound and whole. Perfectly alive. You didn’t steal his life.”

Michael rolled his eyes at that. “Oh, come on. We stole his body. What’s the difference? Would you want to spend the rest of your life living inside an orange glob?”

Kaine laughed. “Michael, I swear. You keep saying the perfect thing to prove my point. What do you think your entire life was before you found out you were a Tangent? Answer that for me.”

“I…was alive, in my own way. I didn’t know any different, so it didn’t matter.”

Kaine blinked hard, then waved his hands, and suddenly the planet-sized womb disappeared and the giant curved wall of the Hive appeared before them, its countless orange orbs of lights pulsing and shining.