The Steelyard Quota: Life as a Slave in the Pitt

Cobb Rainey counts his way through a slave's routine in the Pitt Steelyard, nineteen steps to the loading line, forty ingots before the whistle, while a cough he cannot name eats at his chest and Wernher's talk of rebellion turns from rumor into a door that almost opens. When the uprising finally breaks and fails, Cobb chooses to stay behind for an injured friend rather than take the one gap in the fence, and learns that some choices are the only thing Ashur can never put a quota on.