Rosebud

Rosebud is a science fiction novella by Paul Cornell, structured as a multilayered locked-room story. Its five sentient digital beings have been condemned by the all-powerful Company to crew a small survey ship for more than three hundred years. By force of law, the crew currently consists of a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, what may be a science aristocrat, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.

When the crew come across a mysterious black sphere, the plan is simple: obtain the object, report to the Company, and collect the praise. But the ship malfunctions, and they have no choice except to approach the sphere and survey it themselves.

They have no idea that the object, and the transcendent truth hidden inside it, will change the fate of all existence, the Company, and the crew themselves. As they unravel the nature of their own existence, they search for the truth of their humanity.