Starlane Crossroads

If a space station manager and the station’s security chief don’t uncover the truth about a hated military agent’s death, the station’s fragile independence will be stripped away.

Katalin Efren lost everything in the accident that killed her husband and daughter. Now she manages the independent Tigurini Space Station and tries to put her life back together. When she discovers the body of a hated military agent, she knows she’ll be the first suspect. She turns to her friend and station security chief, Vellek Altano, as the one person she can trust.

Vellek has secrets. He hides a traumatic past and his growing feelings for Katalin. Now he must work closely with her to uncover the truth before government detectives arrive to take over the investigation and make it an easy open-and-shut case.

But as their digging uncovers a threat to the whole station, it raises the simmering question: Can two souls reforging their lives after shattering loss make their unexpectedly deep partnership last?

With the station’s future and their personal lives at stake, will the truth finally set them free…or demolish their last hopes?

Originally published in the Pets in Space 9 Anthology.