Chapter1
The flashing red lights weren’t helping my headache. Neither was the klaxon that had been screaming for an hour. Both were actively making it worse. The large silver wrench in my hand was waiting for its moment to shine—to fulfill its one noble purpose.
I smashed it into the light.
The glass bulb shattered. Its remains fell to the ground like the crystalline raindrops this planet was famous for. I glanced at the wrench. I swear it was smiling at me. It might not have been how Dad taught me to fix things, but I don’t think he would have complained. One problem solved, on to the next.
I sat down at the computer terminal and logged in. My fingers typed to the beat of the AHHH-WOOO alarms, and I did a little chair dance, pretending I was in theStar’s Endagain, the premier orbital dance club at Solaris Prime—hundreds of light-years from this remote outpost.
But that’s what you get for having PhDs in Stellar Physics and Astrobiology. There’s not much demand in the VIP section of the galaxy's hottest clubs for a woman who waxes poetic about red dwarves and alien archeological digs. Although these alarms were making me almost miss standing at the bar listening to some attractive jerk drone on about how his finance degree was making him so much money. Almost.
A notification blinked onto my screen—a subspace transmission from Director Voss.
Speaking of attractive jerks.
I opened the message.
His blue eyes pierced through the static, and my breath caught. Slicked-back black hair, high cheekbones, bronzed skin—annoyingly perfect. It was like a sick cosmic joke. My boss, Mister polished, handsome corporate prince…
“Another request, Dr. Vale? Is there anything you can do on your own?”
I should add massive asshole to that description.
“Kira, I need you to stop sending me so many messages about systems you’re breaking.”
Condescending jerk, come on up to the top of the list!
“We are paying you to make the company money, not make the company spend money. Your request for additional parts and funding is denied. Please, do better in the future.”
I closed one of my eyes, put his head between my forefinger and thumb, and squeezed. He smiled.
“On a separate note, your tour ends in two weeks. I’ve scheduled your final feedback session, and I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of making a reservation at theHeart’s Desire. It just got a fifth Michelin star. Best seafood restaurant this side of Andromeda! Please, no more messages. Be a big girl and figure out your problems yourself. It’s not my job to save you every time something falls apart.” With a wink, he ended the recording.
First, ew. I hated seafood. Second, double ew that he was trying to get in my pants via a good feedback report. I looked over at the wrench. This time, itraised an eyebrow and shrugged. Maybe all that message needed was a little metal massage. I had been out here for eleven and a half months, and the only thing that screen had shown me was sanctimonious message after sanctimonious message. Words directed at somebody none of the Directors even saw. I was invisible to them. A floating body at the edge of the known universe. An attractive charity project that nobody really wanted to hear from.
Instead of smashing his face in, I sat up straight, rolled my shoulders back, shook out my hair, and hit record.
“Director Voss. This station is falling apart. I’ll be lucky to last two weeks with the second-rate materials your company used to construct this hovel. The only sound more annoying than the constant klaxonsthat have been going off for the last month is your pretentious voice telling me tomake do. At thesame time, you sip a martini with a bunch of blowhards that couldn’t spell xenomorphology, let alone find a woman who would actually want to go to a fancy restaurant with you that you aren’t paying by the hour! Not that there is anything wrong with that. For her. Not for you. You suck.”
I stopped the recording and nodded. Perfect. Just what he needed to hear. Absolutely nothing could go wrong by sending that. I put my finger over the transmit button. Best decision ever. I’m going to put him right in his place. Hell, I might even get a promotion for telling the truth! Director Dr. Kira Vale! That had a nice ring to it.
Or I get fired. Blackballed. Shunned. Have to move back in with my parents and hear my Mom tell me I needed to find a good man. My Dad telling me that sometimes it’s better to be seen, not heard. My chest tightened. I guess he had never experienced a job where they didn’t want to see or hear you.
I deleted the message.
Thunder roared outside. The room plunged into darkness. I jumped out of my seat, turning on the flashlight attached to my chest. I sprinted to the habitat’s main breaker. Everything had been tripped. A lightning strike must have hit one of the generators. The emergency backup generator whined to life. The primary system display screen flickered on, and my eyes went wide.
Life support was toast—40% and dropping. If they got below 20%, I'd feel like I was hiking the Himalayas with no oxygen. My breath crystallized, and a shiver wracked my body.
Shit, shit, shit!
Now the temperature regulator was failing. That was the only thing keeping me from being instantly frozen. The planet’s daytime temperature was negative three hundred degrees Celsius! I cursed Director Voss and sprinted back to the habitat’s communications suite.I flipped the black-and-yellow-striped box open and stared at the red knob.
The Emergency beacon. It guaranteed a rescue in three hours. At least, that’s what the company had told me. I had a feeling it wasn’t the complete truth. Then again, maybe Director Voss would break protocol to save me, since we had a dinner date scheduled. I’m sure I was special, and he definitely didn’t have dinner dates planned with all of his female subordinates. Right?
That’s if the pirates didn’t get here first, which these beacons had been known to attract. My choices were: Death by asphyxiation. Death by freezing. Death by pirates. Death by boring dinner conversation.
I could handle pirates and boring dinner conversation. I liked breathing, and I hated the cold.
