The Memory Ethics Act: The Seventh Rib

When the seventh rib began sounding an alarm inside the cultivation chamber, Su Wan'er noticed half a face floating in the growth medium. It belonged to a female lawyer the authorities had officially declared to be suffering from “memory erasure.” Now, bloodied strands of hair were seeping from between the bones. This rib had regenerated after a car accident, and under the catalyst of the “forbidden formula” she had secretly added, an extract from the tear glands of 108 missing women, it was now mimicking the memories of women whose mouths had been sewn shut in the 1950s, turning them into neon-blue nerve fibers that wound around her spine.

The supervisor had barely pressed a fingerprint to the observation window when the rib suddenly pierced through the chamber. Mycelium burst from its tip and instantly coiled around the supervisor's wrist. Amid the frantic streams of data flashing across the monitor, the female pirate's memories traveled through the mycelium and burrowed into Su Wan'er's temple. She heard her own molars grinding: the rib was remotely controlling her jaw.

By the time the special police burst in, the entire rib had transformed into a glasslike cage, with the struggling shadows of women embedded in every bone cell. Su Wan'er's spine suddenly resonated, and the seventh rib exploded, its fragments forming the words of Article One of the Memory Ethics Act. Countless shards of memory swooped toward the crowd like poisonous moths. Those struck saw unfamiliar suffering reflected in their eyes, and some began tearing at their own skin as if trying to gouge the evil hidden in their flesh.

At last, the pile of crystal-like bone fragments reassembled beneath the moonlight, growing into an upside-down forest of ribs. Pulsating memory sacs hung from every branch, while barbed new bone grew inside Su Wan'er's chest. The moment it pierced her skin, she heard thousands upon thousands of women screaming in unison from between her bones.