The Deep Strike Initiative exists to explore the places no one else will, but the Wild Black is unforgiving, in the second novella of this sci-fi trilogy.
Maj. Gen. Alice Benner built her life around venturing into the most dangerous corners of space. But for many, the Wild Black is where ships go to die, crews disappear, and trauma takes root. Alice knows this better than anyone. Once a fearless commander, she's now laying low on Broom IV with her enhanced cat, Moose, hiding the truth: Space has broken her. The "dooms" haunt her every thought with a relentless certainty that something will go horribly wrong. When she's tasked with sending the Thunberg, captained by her favorite protégée, Min Law, to a supposedly empty planet to investigate a distress signal, Alice senses disaster on the horizon. The signal doesn't follow known protocols, and the sudden interest of Earth's military in her operations raises even more alarm bells. She's told to stand down, but she can't look away; dooms be damned. And when the investigation turns into a rescue mission, she'll risk everything—her career, her crew, and her sanity—to reach the Thunberg before it's too late . . .
