Surgery in the Sky

Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City. Who cares if her family doesn’t approve of her blue-collar vocation? Repairing starship engines pays the bills during the worst economic downturn her system has ever seen, and there’s nothing like going to bed smelling of ozone and grease. When the crew of an old cargo vessel stops by her shipyard, Alana stows away in the hope of landing a long-term gig. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right?

She quickly learns things on the Tangled Axon aren’t all star-watching and plasma coils. The chief engineer thinks he’s a wolf—and everyone seems to believe him. The pilot fades in and out of existence even in the most turbulent conditions. And the captain? Well, she’s all blonde hair, boots, and ego.

Alana can’t keep her eyes off her.

Too bad there’s not much time for mysteries and romance when the stringers—corporate giants from the next universe over—are hell-bent on buying out Alana’s electromagnetically-driven reality and replacing it with their nonsensical gravitational physics. Alana and the crew of the Tangled Axon are determined prevent the buyout before the new scientific paradigm renders them obsolete.

But when the stringers learn of the crew’s intentions, they frame Alana and the others for destroying a gas giant and the rare species that lived in its upper atmosphere. Now they must prevent the buyout and save their universe’s physics before they’re arrested for genocide.

Surgery in the Sky is complete at 86,000 words.