Description

Three jobs. Three disasters. One captain who keeps getting talked into doing the right thing.

Captain Darla Oswiu would rather talk to her holographic hippo than to actual people. It's nothing personal. Humans cause trouble. Hippos don't.

Unfortunately, trouble keeps finding her anyway.

In How Not to Rescue a Hippo, Darla takes a supposedly routine courier job in exchange for an artifact she covets. But does she want it badly enough to move illegal goods?

In Finding Joy the Hard Way, a cheap engine refit on a backwater asteroid goes sideways when feral children steal Darla's favourite statue. She won't fly, or pay her repair bill, until she gets it back.

In All They See Are Stars, an old friend gets trapped on a death cult's barely-spaceworthy hauler. Darla and her decommissioned military robot Tud (definitely not short for Totally Useless Device) have to talk their way onto a ship that doesn't believe in airlocks.

Three stories. One stubborn captain learning—slowly, and grudgingly—that the emptiness she's built her life around to protect her heart has been holding her back. Because what good is life in the stars without friends to enjoy them beside her?

Perfect for readers who like their space adventures with sarcasm, side characters worth caring about, and at least one hippo.