ArkN8 Human life is the ultimate cosmic currency. Centuries ago, Earth’s elite signed a hidden treaty with the Galactic Bank, leaving every subsequent generation born into an unpayable genetic deficit. Pandemics and the vaccines designed to fight them are not cures—they are biological tools engineered to siphon human neural capacity directly into alien servers. As cosmic auditors Mazuth and his partner oversee this planetary laboratory, humanity remains blissfully unaware of its leased consciousness.

• Sci-fi