Showing results for "Sand" in Hard Science Fiction

Wrimmad City, the largest settlement on the remote island of Botzis, is in many ways a low technology backwater fishing village, but for one detail: it boasts the seat of Unitism, the world’s second-largest religious order. Polister Calidon, the leader of that order, has lived a politically complicated but otherwise decently tranquil existence, up until the day an old friend shows up at his door. The friend, Professor Damid Magly, and his companion, Princess Battine Alconnot, are fleeing an international warrant, and demand sanctuary.

The Dusahn Empire has been contained for the moment. But there is much work to be done in order to keep them from reasserting their dominance over the Pentaurus sector. As much as Captain Scott wants to see the Empire destroyed, he may have no choice but to find a way to coexist with them.

Sent out into the barren desert of Skar to search out an ore vein, Cressida has precious little time to deliver or her village will starve. But everything changes for Cress when she finds the crashed remains of a mysterious sentient star fighter underneath the sands. It promises assistance in exchange for the parts it needs to repair itself, and for Cress, finally a chance for an adventure, but she may be getting more than she bargained for.