Project Starborn

Dane Corbin has $340.18 to his name, an associate's degree he finished at night, and a job resetting passwords for people who do not know his last name. His mother needs a kidney. Medicare covers eighty percent of her dialysis and there is no cap on the rest, so the balance grows every month, and the only thing between her and that number is him. Then he slips on a wet stairwell at midnight and hits his head on concrete. What he wakes up with is not a system, not an interface, and not free. It gives him ten seconds. Ten seconds is enough to start. From a cubicle on the ninth floor, Dane is going to build Starborn Industries. He is also going to write six rules for himself in a notes app, half as a joke, and keep that note for the rest of his life. He breaks all six. Grounded near future sci-fi. Real engineering, real money, real elements. A power system with hard limits that never bend when the plot needs them to. A protagonist who is generous to the people he loves and does not hesitate with the people who threaten them.