Okay, so I wrote a thing called 'The Upgrade.' Which people apparently liked. I feel sort of uncomfortable posting it here, because The Spine of the Empire is an Empirian thing, part of the world I have made. THE WORLD. As in the ones that 99% of my work exists in, save it being from reality, and now this little short piece. And 'The Upgrade' pisses me off slightly because it isn't part of the world, and it feels dirty...
I wrote this for a science-fiction magazine, but I was rejected, so here I am posting it here. You can read it and download it as pdf. The Upgrade is a short science fiction story about an Android finding the path to self-actualization.