Net Zero

Net Zero is a near-future cyberpunk tale where reality bleeds into the machine.Ariel, a streetwise edgerunner, accepts a beta invite from her fixer-an offer too good to refuse. Nexus Advanced Systems Technology, Inc. (NASTI) promises full-immersion simulations where everything you earn, you keep. Every sensation feels real. Every risk seems virtual.It's only a game. Right?What Ariel doesn't know is that NASTI's funding comes from DARPA and a secretive eugenics foundation. The simulations are more than entertainment-they're a battleground for next-gen warfare. A proving ground for a dark agenda.And in this game, if you die in cyberspace… you die for real.

Nerds being what they are, highly intelligent computer geeks, have not changed the least bit in the last century. The nerdssoftware engineers, game designers, and coders, working for Nexus Advanced Systems Technology, Inc. (NASTI) make a discovery in the archivesThe Lost Treasures of Infocom.One game catches their attention more than the others, Starcross. They manage to get it working on an antique DOS computer, and play through it solving its many puzzles after much trial and error. After partying with copious use of weed, Molly, and LSD, they get the idea to recreate Starcross, but as a full immersion VR simulation.Join Ariel and Jenna as they board the Starcross, and solve the mysteries aboard it. It is a do, or die simulation in which not only are their lives in jeopardy, so are the lives of the other game testers aboard the Endeavorlame as they may be.

The final connection to the VR matrix locks into place, and thenSuddenly, Ariel and Jenna find themselves standing in a dimly lit corridor. The walls tremble. Emergency lights pulse an ominous red, casting jagged shadows as klaxons wail through the ship. The deck beneath their feet bucks unpredictably, gravity flickering between stability and weightlessness.A booming announcement echoes through the space:"All hands, prepare to abandon ship! This is not a drill!"Their breath catches. The waiting roomwhere is it? They were supposed to wake up there. But instead they're here. Is this another simulation? Or is this real?Chaos erupts around them. Crew members sprint past, desperate to reach escape pods. Sparks rain from ruptured conduits, and the acrid scent of burning insulation fills the air.Ariel and Jenna remain frozen, instincts warring with confusionuntil a figure looms before them.A tall, broad-shouldered spaceman steps forward. His presence is undeniable, commanding, and yet unsettlingly familiar.Their pulse quickens.Who is he? And why does it feel like they've met him before?

The choice of simulations is out of Ariel's and Jenna's hands. Since taking over as NASTI's financial benefactor, Persephone and Hades have been thrusting them into simulations with increasing peril.In this simulation, they find themselves on Moonbase Alpha. Something is amiss with the nuclear storge facility. Eagle pilots are returning with what looks like radiation burns, but no radioactivity is detected. No alarms have sounded, radiation sensors at the waste facility, five silos dug deep into lunar basalt, show safe levels of radiation. Ariel and Jenna are sent to investigate in person.This is their harshest assignment yet: investigating Moonbase Alpha's nuclear waste facility, underground containment chambers containing hundreds of tons of volatile uranium-235 and plutonium-239 reclaimed from disarmed warheads, spent reactor fuel rods, and other hazardous radioactive waste.They discover something is terribly wrong, and work to stave off a chain reaction that may lead to nuclear fission. Are they too late?

Ariel and Jenna are given an upgrade courtesy of NASTI's new financial benefactor, Hell's Bells, Inc. They are going wireless, no more need for a physical connection. But there's a catch. No more physical connections mean no more control. The lines between reality and simulation blur. They can't choose when they log inor when they're released.Their first field test seems simple enough: a joyride with Iris aboard the Isabella, her lovingly maintained steam-dirigible. A girls' day out above the clouds, skimming the sky, engines humming with arcane energy.But the skies turn violent. Caught in a rogue storm, lightning rips through the envelope, sending the Isabella spiraling out of the heavens. The ship crashes into the sea, and washes ashore on an uncharted island. The Mysterious Island.Ariel and Jenna, with their companion Iris, must navigate a strange new world teeming with secretsand fight to survive whatever it is that's been waiting for them here.

Defiance has earned Ariel, Jenna, and Iris the wrath of Persephone. Stripped of power and armed with nothing but the clothing on their backs, they are cast into the hands of the vampiric Countess Elizabeth Báthory. There, they must endure days of bloodletting, torment, and psychological manipulation. As Ariel teeters on the brink of becoming a monster herself, only the intervention of her AI companion, Ghost, prevents her from turning on the ones she loves.Escaping through the sewers of Čachtice Castle, the trio finds not freedom, but Hades' courtroom-where divine judgment awaits. Broken, defiant, or nearly lost, each must confront Persephone's wrath, Hestia's compassion, and their own inner darkness as they struggle to reclaim their bodies, their minds, and their souls.

It isn't counting. It isn't calling. It warns.When a ghost-map lures three thrill-seekers into a bioluminescent grotto beneath Antarctica, their neon-skate rave wakes something older than ice-a three-beat whisper that follows them home. In the under-ice city of Ganzir-Kur, Queen Ereshkigal sends Ariel (battle-scarred tactician with an AI named Ghost), Jenna (edgerunner hacker partnered to Bob), and Iris (winged ex-goddess and unapologetic Trekkie) to ride a Nephilim ascender and rendezvous with the UEC SC Archimedes at Saturn, where that same whisper circles Titan.What they find is a graveyard that shouldn't exist: a dark fleet adrift, silent as stone and perfectly wrong. The pulses might be a greeting-or a hazard chime. Doors demand choices. Rifts home require faith. And aboard the dead, something patient has learned how to be unseen.Blending cyberpunk grit, myth-punk mystique, and wide-screen space opera. Whispers from the Graveyard is a story of found family, sharp banter, and reckless courage under auroras and ringlight. If Ariel misreads the signal, it won't be a message; it'll be an obituary. If Iris can't open the way, there may be no way back. And if Jenna's sandbox fails, the warning over Titan could become a contagion for every sky.Antarctica to orbit. Queens and starships. Ghosts, gods, and the cost of opening a door. Jay Toney writes mythic, high-stakes fiction where science, gods, and humanity collide. His stories span space opera, cyberpunk, epic fantasy, post-apocalyptic futures, and multiverse AI realities - all rooted in deep knowledge of Greek and Sumerian theology. Blending hard science with ancient myth, cosmic horror, and character-driven intensity, his books explore what happens when mortals challenge destiny, when machines dream of gods, and when the universe itself takes sides. If you love stories where empires fall, goddesses rise, and the fate of existence hangs on a single breath - welcome to the Net Zero universe and beyond.

Ghost shares exciting news with Ariel and Jennaan advanced new VR simulation has just launched. It's a high-stakes hostage rescue mission: infiltrate Tartarus and save Princess Persephone from the clutches of the malevolent wizard, Hades.Intrigued, they hesitate only briefly before Ghost seals the deal with an irresistible temptation. But there's a catch. To enter Tartarus, they must first die. And in this simulation, dead in cyberspace means dead in reality.What they don't know is that the game is a death trap. Under pressure from Lidia Gates, the VR simulation was rushed into release without testing. Anyone who jacks in is zeroed out in the real world before they even enter the simulationa series of meaningless code masquerading as a thrilling adventure.Can Ariel and Jenna defy fate and return from death? Their journey into the underworld is about to begin.