Author name: Praline

Six months later. The Raptor smelled like Zevik’s terrible attempt at Tamzari flatbread and Maris’s corrective curry and the recycled […]

The mess hall smelled like Maris’s cooking. She’d always cooked when the mood took her. Three days after Nexus, she’d

The message arrived on the fifth day. Official Consortium seal. Formal language, the kind I’d grown up reading over my

JESSA Three days later, the urgency was gone. The evidence was spreading through every network in the Consortium. Officials were

SERAK Solren worked on me for two hours. The plasma burn was simple, regenerative gel and a bandage and a

JESSA I found him in the corridor. He was on the floor. Vain’s body behind him, crumpled against the wall

SERAK The first five minutes were quiet. Deyric’s voice in my ear, counting channels. “GalacNet authenticated. Broadcasting. Military frequencies opening.”

JESSA The Raptor dropped out of transit hard and fast. The bond registered it before the station’s hull did. A

SERAK The guard rotation opened a twelve-minute window at what the station’s lighting suggested was the middle of the night

JESSA The second interrogation was shorter. Vain wanted specifics about the crew. Ship capabilities, combat strength, intelligence sources. I gave