Chapter 8 Summary

Case, Molly, Armitage and Riviera stop for a few days at Zion before proceeding to Freeside. Zion was founded by construction workers who did not want to return to Earth after building Freeside. It is a conglomeration of orbiting metal and discarded systems. Zion residents refer to themselves as Zionites and espouse a type of Rastafarian religion based on Jah, ganja and synthesized music called dub. Zionites refer to all non-Zion locations as Babylon. They also lump cyberspace into Babylon.

Armitage tells Case and Molly to start practicing zero gravity skills and become acclimated to working without gravity. Case jacks in to cyberspace and talks to the Dixie Flatline construct, which tries to make Case promise to erase its ROM after the mission is complete.

Armitage gives an orientation presentation on Freeside. The enormous orbiting station is shaped like a hollow cigar, with...