Paperback, 400 pages

Published 2019

Guardians of the Galaxy meets Ann Leckie's Provenance in this action-packed space opera with a husband-and-wife pair of artifact hunters (she's the last scion of a warrior race, he's an academic from Baltimore), their snarky cyborg pilot, and a desperate rebellion against an empire of tentacle-armed tyrants.

Max is cheery xeno-archeologist from Earth, stranded and trying to find a way home.

Lahra is a stern warrior of a nearly extinct race searching for her people's heir.

Wheel is the couple's cybernetic pilot running from her past and toward an unknown future.

On Wheel's ship, the Kettle, the trio traverses the galaxy, dodging Imperial patrols and searching ancient temples and ruins for anything they can sell. Back on the Wreck, their home and base of operations, the crew of the Kettle are deeply in debt to the drifting's city's most powerful gangster, and she wants her money back.

So when a dangerous, but a promising job comes their way, Max, Lahra, and Wheel have little choice but to take it if they have any hope of keeping their ship, and themselves, afloat. But the crew of the Kettle gets more than they bargained for when they find themselves in possession of a powerful artifact, one that puts them in the crosshairs of the...