Cusp by Robert a Metzger

Robert A. Metzger is a research scientist in the area of semiconductors, high-speed telecommunication, and datacommunication devices. He has held distinguished teaching and consultation positions with Hughes Research Laboratories and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is the author of the novel Quad World and twenty-five short stories published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Amazing, Aboriginal SF, and Weird Tales. He has contributed numerous pieces to Wired, and is cofounder of a technical trade journal, Compound Semiconductor. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.