Through Zero Trust by Denis Zubois

It’s the late 24th century.

Interstellar travel is commonplace; fusion reactors are in vehicles, controlled singularities are in batteries, matter turns into energy and back again in airport luggage carousels.

And now, Azoth promises something more: the chance to live as long as one has the will – and remain at one’s physical best to the end.

But in a civilisation where trust has become obsolete, will it be a blessing or a curse?

In the First Worlds, after four centuries of socinet, everyone lives under constant scrutiny. Everyone expects betrayal – and stands ready to strike first. ‘Zero trust’ is no longer an IT strategy; it is a way of life.

In such a society – some call it a sociopathocracy – what will near-immortality become? A dream fulfilled, or the ultimate tool of control?

Across the First Worlds, the corporate colonies born after WWIII, and the Third Worlds, the independent frontier worlds that followed, a few people understand that something must change.

But to challenge a culture built on fear and betrayal, they must first overcome something far more personal:
their own mistrust.