Starfire: Shadow Sun Seven (The Starfire Trilogy, 2)

Starfire: Shadow Sun Seven (The Starfire Trilogy, 2)

Shadow Sun Seven continues Spencer Ellsworth's Starfire trilogy, an action-packed space opera in which the oppressed half-Jorian crosses have risen up to supplant humanity. Jaqi, Araskar and Z are on the run from everyone - the Resistance, the remnants of the Empire, the cyborg Suits, and right now from the Matakas - and the Matakas are the most pressing concern because the insectoid aliens have the drop on them. The Resistance has a big reward out for Araskar and the human children he and Jaqi are protecting. But Araskar has something to offer the mercenary aliens. He knows how to get to a huge supply of pure oxygen cells, something in short supply in the formerly human Empire, and that might be enough to buy their freedom. Araskar knows where it is, and Jaqi can take them there. With the Matakas as troops, they break into Shadow Sun Seven, on the edge of the Dark Zone. The Verge ―Science fiction and fantasy books to read this November “Space battles! Bug ships! A galaxy in peril! This epic, awe-inspiring blend of the fantastic is everything great space opera should be. Chewy, gooey, thought-provoking and above all ― a great deal of fun.” ―Kameron Hurley “Gritty. It usually means rough and tumble. Spencer Ellsworth has done that, but here, the word gritty also means tangible. Starfire feels real. Jaqi feels real, and man, is she full of grit.” ―Mary Robinette Kowal “Cozy, classic space opera is twisted in innovative, awesome ways in Ellsworth's debut A Red Peace . Humankind is the nasty invasive alien in space that's about to get its comeuppance, and wow, do the pages zoom by. I impatiently await the next book!”―Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger “The high adventure and scale of a classic space opera, but with a set of diverse characters with varied motivations and greater nuance.” ― RT Book Reviews SPENCER ELLSWORTH's short fiction has previously appeared in Lightspeed Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , and Tor.com . He is the author of the Starfire trilogy, which begins with Starfire: A Red Peace . He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and three children, works as a teacher/administrator at a small tribal college on a Native American reservation. Starfire: Shadow Sun Seven By Spencer Ellsworth, Beth Meacham Tom Doherty Associates Copyright © 2017 Spencer Ellsworth All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7653-9575-7 CHAPTER 1 Jaqi MY LIFE EN'T EVER been simple, but it's been a lot more complicated since I went and did a miracle. Take this situation, here, right now. I'm at the bottom of a node-relay tower. The node-relay controls communications for this entire moon; it sticks a mile up into the sky, the crystal Jorian structure shining prettily from the middle of a desert junk field, all old chassis and parts, spread out so evil wide it could pass for the Imperial Fleet's secondhand sale. It's not our node-relay tower; we're hijacking it to try and recruit for the cause. It belongs to the Matakas, the nastiest crime lords on all the nasty worlds, and if they saw what we're doing, they'd kick us out the airlock. Actually, no airlocks here. We're on the planet surface, where gravity and air are free, so I reckon they'll just fly us evil high and drop us. You'll have to forgive me, as I'm just a spaceways girl. Yeah, me, Jaqi, the spaceways scab. I am fighting my own little fight against John Starfire himself, who conquered the galaxy. All because I did a miracle. Don't ask. Right now I'm bent over the power cell, greasing it up with anti-oxitate to make sure the thing actually speaks to the tower. Got to grease up the connections before they go back together, as the atmos evil corrodes everything. These power cells work best in vacuum. "Come on now," I mutter. "Let's get word out to the rest of the galaxy, and get back to camp and eat some real matter." I had tomatoes and corn and beans for breakfast and it was better than anything. 'Cept now I'm ready for lunch. We didn't even eat lunch in the spaceways. It's a noble tradition, lunch. I plan to observe a couple of times a day. I wipe my hands on my pants, and then see the miracle, looming over me, holding out a handful of sand. "Here," the miracle says. "What's this for?" "It will get the grease off your hands. We often used sand for cleaning, among my people." "Thanks." I scrub the rough granules across my skin. "Evil rough on the old skin, though." Could use a rag, the kind that we would recycle and re-spin once the fibers got too damaged. But you en't going to be able to keep track of all your rags planetside. (Planetside! Where you can lose things! Did I mention that food grows out of the damn ground ?) "You and I have discussed sand before," the miracle says. "Oh, yeah?" "Yes." Why's he look so nervous? I en't never seen this slab look nervous. Just cuz I did a miracle? "At the asteroid base. Bill's. We spoke about the relative merits of cleaning with water, sense-field, and sand." "I re