[1] It was first published as a serial in the monthly Amazing Stories, June to September, and as a paperback original by Baen Books in August 1992.

The book begins when she contracts the virus at age seven and features her adventures as AH-1033 with her "brawn" Alex, the human partner whom she secretly loves.

The premise introducing the series is that the parents of babies with severe physical disabilities but fully developed brains may allow them to become "shell people".

Taking that option, physical growth is stunted, the body is encapsulated in a titanium life-support shell with capacity for computer connections, and the person is raised for "one of a number of curious professions.

As such, their offspring would suffer no pain, live a comfortable existence in a metal shell for several centuries, performing unusual service for Central Worlds".

A brainship is able to operate independently but is usually employed in partnership with one "normal" person called a "brawn" who travels inside the ship much as a pilot would.