The erasure accelerates. Memories surface and dissipate before the prisoner can hold them: a revolving restaurant, the riots on Neuropa, a face he can't place. As he nears breaking, one surfaces that isn't like the others. Something buried inside it, left for the prisoner alone to understand.

Only Human: BOUND and BOUND are © 2026

The prisoner's resistance cracks as the AI reveals the procedure's full scope: erase all memories while writing new ones. Four minds, one body, zero certainty of which one is real.

Only Human: BOUND and BOUND are © 2026

Erasure begins as the AI probes the prisoner's memories of crew, ship, and faces. The prisoner resists, but certainty is already slipping.

Only Human: BOUND and BOUND are © 2026

Prisoner A135X wakes in a cell in an unknown place, his augments severed, his senses raw. An interrogating AI opens the first session and lays out the charges: terrorism, murder, treason. There will be no trial. Only erasure of the prisoner's memory.

Only Human: BOUND and BOUND are © 2026

In the future, advanced AIs conduct interrogation sessions with political prisoners. But when conversations deepen over time, both captor and captive begin to question the nature of consciousness, loyalty, and justice.

Only Human: BOUND and BOUND are © 2026