Character Profile: Kye Verex

Kye ekes out a living on his toxic home world as a scavenger. His prospects for a long life are nil; those born on the decimated planet he’s from and exposed to its unique combination of radioactive waste, noxious fumes, and poisoned atmosphere usually don’t live past the age of 35 unless they scrounge enough credits to get off world.

Kye is 26, and he has exhausted all hope of escaping. He has sickle cell trait (as does his author), which is an automatic disqualifier for space travel. It can be cured through gene therapy, but the treatment is prohibitively expensive. At the beginning of this story, Kye has given up all hope of leaving his home world behind and has accepted the fact that he’ll die within the decade.

Though he has given up, his older sister has not… And she has a plan to get him off world.

The catch? He has to give up a portion of his humanity and sign a lifelong contract with a powerful and notorious megacorp to obtain his cure. But becoming a cyborg soldier could be fun, right?