Chapter Three: The Shared Dream

"You think a name can belong to only one person because you still believe the body is the border of consciousness." She pushed Shen Yao against the empty jar. Its glass became an Ebbtide door. Beyond lay a laboratory seven years in the past. A younger Gu Linchuan wept beside an operating table where a seven-year-old girl in a red raincoat lay motionless. On an observation bed across the room lay the adult Lu Cen. "One." Gu removed electrodes from Lu Cen's head. On a monitor, a personality map labeled SHEN YAO copied itself into an empty field. The field lit: HOST AWAKENING SUCCESSFUL. The umbrella lunged. The red-coated Shen Yao threw herself into its opening mouths. "Go to Pier Seven!" she shouted. "Before it learns to wear your face!"