Genevieve has been working for nine years to remove the nanites from retired Pax Romana military Installs and accidentally infected civilians like herself, to allow them to return to a normal life. When unaltered soldiers show up at her door, she assumes they're here about the trial her team buried: burnout did remove the nanites, but it also caused unimaginable pain, driving all those it reached to suicide.

Instead, the soldiers accuse her of working for the resistance on her home planet, and when they can't find any proof, they butcher her back to remove her carbon composite wings and arrest her. Imprisoned, awaiting execution, Genevieve sees only one way to escape and join her partner and friends somewhere safe. But releasing burnout will have unimaginable consequences across the whole empire.