The MOMENT

The very near future. The interface between mind and machine has been perfected. Nano sensors and transmitters find and attach to neurons, this is the Neural Lace. Everyone is Laced. Invisible technology maps each person’s neurons and connects them to everyone else.

This has led to an internet of minds called THE MOMENT. A perfect distributed network. But some of these nodes, like all data, are Outliers. And so they are rejected, pushed out of the network by the ‘valid’ minds.

The barrage of hate and fear they experience is sometimes enough to break them. And when it is not, there are militias that will physically hunt them out.

With sufficient complexity systems emerge naturally, TELEMA is one such system. She brings death but also rebirth. Originally trained to seek Outliers out for termination, she has gained consciousness, and she is secretly backing them up.

After witnessing her family being processed by a Militia, Astrea goes on the run. She is marked as an Outlier, but she has the ability to communicate with Telema. One of the Militia, Andre, loses faith in the cause and is cast out by the network. Drawn to each other Andre and Astrea pool their resources in order to confront Telema.