ShipCore

In space, isolation is a slow killer. Company quickens the pace. Waking up adrift in an ancient battleground, Alex is left dazed and confused with no clue how she ended up trapped aboard a failing vessel. With only a mysterious voice in her head to guide her, she must act in order to survive. Every piece of the puzzle she collects only leads to more questions about her origins — and the star she's trapped around might not be as deserted as she first thought. All she knows for sure is that she could die at any minute. Alex is not going to go down without a fight.

Escaping from an angry drone graveyard with the help and sacrifice of one of her own kind, Alex finds herself in a fringe system populated by mankind — a species that would fear and hate her if they knew the truth. Still, she can't wait to see new sights and make more friends. She just has to be a little subtle about it, and maybe trade in some antimatter nuclear warheads. But faking it until you make it can lead to unforeseen consequences, and when those involve dropping megatons of munitions on a perhaps misunderstood alien species, the stakes are raised even higher. When placed as the only thing standing between a people about to be annihilated, can Alex turn away?

Ship destroyed. Core inactive. Friends and family unavailable. Alex faces the consequences of her choices on a ship full of strangers. Forced to confront a civilization built on the regulation of her kind, she must learn and adapt to situations she never imagined. Some see her as the key to breaking a decades-old stalemate; others, as a threat that will ignite the fires of war. But all Alex wants is her sister and NAI companion back.

Alex finds herself at the center of a power struggle that threatens to tear the Meltisar System apart. As Chi Celestia assumes the role of system ruler, Alex and her friends face fierce opposition from the major powers. Political turmoil and hidden agendas within the navy further complicate matters, and her past actions in the Nu Crateris System may come back to haunt her. Meanwhile, back on the frontier, Amy awakens — healed but not entirely herself — and must work with Starlight Revolution to prevent it from being crushed by the oppressive superpowers of the Corporate Systems and Solarian Federation. With their lives and the future of the frontier hanging in the balance, they must summon all their courage to fend off the forces arrayed against them.