Description

A bird raised by reptiles. An officer who doesn't want to belong. A ship that won't let her stay invisible.

Sharp-tongued, watchful, and always ready for a fight, Ensign Ko Marin is the first and only Avioran officer in the Tri-Galactic Union. Hatched in a cold Reptassan cave, far from the warmth of her own kind, Ko has spent her whole life feeling like she owes a debt she can never repay. Now she's been reassigned to the starship Initiative, where an annoyingly persistent collie, a telepathic green otter, and a bartending rabbit with eerily good instincts seem determined to crack through her shell.

In "The Measure of an Egg," a chance encounter with a Reptassan cargo ship forces Ko to confront truths about her own origins — and the civilization she thought she owed everything to. Then in "When Reality Cracks," a teleporter accident leaves Ko and the ship's tabby engineer trapped out of phase with everyone around them — unseen, unheard, and running out of time. Caught between an Avioran afterlife she barely understands and a life she's only just begun to claim, Ko must decide what matters more: accepting her fate gracefully or fighting like hell to get back to a crew she didn't realize had become her home.