This week we have one that is slated as Firefly meets Dune! I know if you are like me you so can't wait to dive into this one! Well your going to have to wait until March 21 to hold it in your hand! But we hope you enjoy this first look!
Nev has just joined the crew of the starship Kaitan Heritage as the cargo loader. His captain, Qole, is the youngest-ever person to command her own ship, but she brooks no argument from her crew of orphans, fugitives, and con men. Nev can’t resist her, even if her ship is an antique.
As for Nev, he’s a prince, in hiding on the ship. He believes Qole holds the key to changing galactic civilization, and when her cooperation proves difficult to obtain, Nev resolves to get her to his home planet by any means necessary.
But before they know it, a rival royal family is after Qole too, and they’re more interested in stealing her abilities than in keeping her alive.
Nev’s mission to manipulate Qole becomes one to save her, and to survive, she’ll have to trust her would-be kidnapper. He may be royalty, but Qole is discovering a deep reservoir of power—and stars have mercy on whoever tries to hurt her ship or her crew.
ADRIANNE STRICKLAND AND MICHAEL MILLER met in their hometown of Palmer, Alaska, where they agreed on books 99% of the time, and thus decided to write together. Michael grew up off the grid in a homestead in Alaska and ironically now works very much on the grid in IT and Web development. AdriAnne grew up in Nevada and now spends her summers as a commercial fisherwoman in Bristol Bay, Alaska, and the rest of her year writing. This is their first book together. You can find them on Twitter at @AdriAnneMS and @begemotike.
"All opinions are 100% honest and my own."
Nev
The first time I heard the captain’s voice was over the ship’s comm: “Hold on, it’s going to be a rough run.”
She wasn’t wrong. The young man across from me, Arjan, grinned as I took a wide stance and braced myself against the g-forces of the good ship Kaitan Heritage hurtling out of orbit.
“I see you’ve flown before,” he said.
He knew I was a stranger to this business, so his acknowledgment was of the condescending sort. I hoped Arjan wouldn’t get in my way. Well, he was already in my way, literally blocking the stairs. He was around my age, nineteen, or maybe twenty-one at most, tall with black hair that fell to shoulders that were broader than even my own. In spite of his size, I would have happily tried to brush by him if I could have succeeded with minimal fuss.
We were alone in the cargo hold, a large space dominated by pallets of canisters and an industrial panel with a maglock that I guessed connected to the containment hold on the other side. High on one wall was a display showing a feed from outside the ship. Clouds streaked by, while the walls themselves were caked with old space scum built up over time from condensation and dirt.
I nodded in response. I was definitely no stranger to space travel, which was how I could tell that we were leaving Alaxak in a hurry. Even if a ship was too utilitarian to be equipped with the best gravitational dampeners, most pilots attempted to escape the pull of a planetary body with a little less violence than what we were currently undergoing. The captain had either a great deal of faith in the Kaitan or a completely different way of assessing risk. The entire ship was shaking with the strain, and the thrusters roared loudly enough that I felt compelled to raise my voice to speak.
“I’ve been around, thanks. Where are we headed?”
“You really haven’t done this before?” Arjan gave me a sympathetic shake of his head.
I did my best to hide my annoyance at the gesture, biting back a retort. Being uppity as the new hire wasn’t likely to endear myself to anybody, and my agenda was worth sacrificing my ego. More than that, Arjan was the captain’s brother. I hadn’t met her yet, but she was the reason I was here.
I had traveled what felt like the length and breadth of the frozen planet of Alaxak to find someone specific: a captain with phenomenal abilities. Rumors, speculation, and a great many purchased drinks had led me to the village of Gamut, and then to here, a ship called the Kaitan Heritage, and to Captain Qole Uvgamut. “Of Gamut,” in their dialect. She and Arjan belonged to one of the old native families that had originally settled the planet. One of the families, perhaps, whose long exposure to the unstable energy source known as Shadow yielded more than just sickness and death.
And yet, even though she’d technically hired me onto her crew, I hadn’t been able to get close enough to even say hello, let alone place a biometric sensor on her.
I wasn’t sure how I would even manage an introduction like that. Hi, my name is Nev, and no, I can’t tell you my last name or quite what I want with you, but would you please come with me?
But rumor also had it that Arjan was nearly the caliber of pilot she was. So when I’d shaken his hand, I’d placed a biometric sensor on his forearm. And based on the miniature readout displayed on my wrist feed at the touch of a button, the data was now uploading to Uncle Rubion through their Quantum Intersystem Network, thanks to the hack I had infiltrating it. Normal comm links didn’t work at such distance, but the QUIN did.
I didn’t know how long it would take my uncle to interpret the data, but whatever his conclusion, my time on the Kaitan was limited. My pickup was coming in two days’ time, and I had to be on it with at least one of the Uvgamuts.
I already hoped it would be Qole, and not just because of the incredible rumors regarding her Shadow affinity.
“I’m afraid I’m new to this particular venture,” I said, “but I’m a quick study. Can you give me a brief overview of my duties?”
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