THE DAUGHTER STAR - space opera from Susan J. Bigelow

What a rotten way for everything to turn out. Freighter pilot Marta Grayline is grounded, trapped on her miserable home planet by an intrasystem war that’s separated her from her beautiful girlfriend, her career, and everything she loves.

When her sister Beth offers her a way out by enlisting in the Novan Emergency Fleet, Marta jumps at the opportunity to get back into space.

But when her ship is attacked and destroyed, she finds herself stranded on a mysterious space station with a crew that won’t answer her questions.

And, of course, then there’s the aliens – the planet-destroying Abrax that somehow seem to have a hold on Beth.

They’re coming for Marta, too.

She’ll have to face ancient forces, her own doubts, and the inside of an alien mind if she wants to get some answers, complete her mission, and unlock her own latent potential. The Daughter Star, the red beacon in the night sky, may yet be the key to the freedom and understanding Marta so desperately wants.

GOODREADS 


Teaser....

The controls in front of Captain Turn beckoned. “No,” he said firmly. “No, it has to be this way.”
He looked at his own companion Abrac and thought, They must believe in their hearts that there is no way home. There is no other way.
He hummed a little seven-note song to himself as he approached the console.
The other humans shouted in alarm, realizing what he was doing, but by then it was far too late. He rapidly keyed the sequence in.
“God forgive me,” he whispered as fire swept the atmosphere of Earth away below. In less than a minute, it was done. Earth spun lifeless on the viewer, nothing but rock and ash.
 Captain Turn saw the horror and despair on the faces of the other humans, and knew he'd done well.

Three hundred years later

The news hit like a bomb, scattering the pieces of Marta's life in all directions. The notice popped up on her console as soon as she had eased the massive freighter into the dock at Sternhafen Station, high above massive, unforgiving Nea, and the power/data cables were hooked up. She scanned it with half an eye, treating it like any message coming in, but she caught a few crucial words and read it again, riveted to the screen.
“No,” she groaned. “Oh, no, no. Please don't do this to me.”

***

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