Author Description

TAKE A JOB. FALL IN LOVE. TRY NOT TO BLOW UP SUNS. Polla Ottrava's a registered smuggler and the best pilot she knows (probably), all thanks to her "navvy," the sentient navigational computer in her arm. She's also a woman in freefall, who's betrayed her Syndicate and run home to her parent's farm on a remote planet to avoid her vengeful ex-boss--not to mention the lover she just double-crossed. When things go from bad to nearly fatal, Polla finds herself halfway across the Milk from home, taking a job she's not allowed to refuse from a trio of charming, desperate characters. One's another pilot with his own navvy. The other two are telekinetic stoneshapers who aren't allowed to learn science lest they accidentally blow up suns. They say Polla needs to fly their living bloodship to a hidden, mythical planet so they can stop a madman... and then, as one puts it, "this ends for you." They say they're saving the galaxy. They say they're heroes. They say they'll pay-- They say a lot of crap. Only some of it's true. IN HER OWN WORDS... I knew they were liars from the start, so why didn't I run? No high-minded reason. Sympathy for Lieutenant Navigator Sai? Of course. Sympathy... and attraction. But he’d made his bed, and I had no illusions about saving him from it. So why didn't I run? You’ve never asked, you cannot ask, but I imagine you asking all the same, you with your cold voice and your unrelenting, useless logic: "Why didn’t you run? You owed them nothing. Even then, you knew they were liars, deserters, and thieves." I didn’t think. That’s it. That’s the entire reason. I didn’t think--