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CHAPTER 1

The ship cuts through the at us down

Below, the spaceport waits, white as bone beneath the pallid sun From its quiet appearance and weathered exterior, I can tell this is a relic of ancient tih the Ithtorians once explored the stars, they do so no longer They retreated o and cut off all trade

It’s e all that

The structure is shaped like a do, as if we’re being ingested Our pilot has steady hands, but he’s not an artist like March Nonetheless, we put down sooner than I’d like

I’m not ready

That doesn’t stopto the exit ramp My personal creill meet me there The rest line up and salute as we pass They’re ot stuck on Lachion before the war I don’t know all their nah on board

We won’t be taking everyone fros would doubtless panic and think they were being invaded It’s significant that they let us dock here at all Baby steps before we take a giant leap for mankind

I find Jael, Hit, Dina, March, and Vel waiting when I arrive Jael is uard, and he frankly looks too pretty for the job unless you stare him in the eyes That’s when you realize there’s ests We all have our secrets, but Jael’s erous I can think of a dozen different consortiuet their hands on him and see if they can replicate him

You see, he’s Bred, a surviving specimen of the Ideal Genome Project Most of them went mad or died in utero Daed to surlomerate official who calls the shots on this mission—pays him, he’s committed to my safety

So is Constance Long ago, she was just a little silver sphere, owned by Mair Dahlgren Now she’s so ent Personal Assistant, and though I wouldn’t ad With each incarnation, she learns es her primary function Now that she’s embedded in an ambulatory frame, she’s determined to be the perfect assistant

At length, Constance finishes her inspection of me, and says, “You look most appropriate, Sirantha Jax”

Hit s the last clan war, before they all swore fealty to Gunnar-Dahlgren She’s tall, sliht curls She has eyes that shine like a night-hunting cat, and she’s so lethal she can kill somebody with just her pinky

I’ about that

During our last mission, I found out she has a poison hypo in her littlest finger Hit isn’t someone I want to cross At one point, she worked for Madairls scattered, not wanting to die in the coup She wound up running freight with a merchants reached criticalto Dina, and seems committed to our side

Dina is our ship’s unnery specialist With those skills, you expect her to be tough as nails, but she’s pretty, too, with her heart-shaped face and green eyes Just by looking at her, you’d never know she’s a princess in exile She can never return to Tarnus Her faone; she’s the last of the royal line

We didn’t get along at first She blamed me for the loss of her previous lover, Edaine It wasn’t really my fault, but they didn’t have too many options when they came to break me out of the prison on Perlas Station Edaine ator’s lot

Unless you’re like me I’ve made so many jumps at this point that I’m not sure I believe burnout is inevitable for s me back from the brink

Or someone, like March

I gaze at hilance my way Ice blazes in his eyes like bits of aood As well as ain I have to hold on to that, or everything else seeless

Well, al If I lose March over what he did on Lachion, I’ll still have Vel The Ithtorian bounty hunter once tracked alaxy; now I couldn’t ask for a better friend In this ation before us, we have an Ithtorian to guide us and prevent us fro catastrophic mistakes If we succeed here, it will be because of Vel

As I’ve been studying the ht of me in the ceremonial robe I swore I’d never wear My jaw clenches

Dina clears her throat “We good to go?”

Tapping the exit panel, I answer, “Let’s do it”