Debts to Pay E-Book

Cora Buhlert

• Herausgeber: Cora Buhlert
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Once Carlotta Valdez was a mercenary, working for the highest bidder. No job was too dirty or too dangerous as long as she got paid.But then Carlotta had a change of heart. She joined the Rebellion against the Galactic Empire and met rebel leader Arthur Madden, perhaps the only man in the universe she genuinely admires. However, the past has a nasty habit of catching up with you when you least expect it. And so, while on a mission for the Rebellion, Carlotta runs into Darius Gilroy, crime lord, all around scumball and her former boss. Gilroy had a job for Carlotta and he won't take no for an answer. And to emphasise his point, he threatens to hand her over to the Empire, if she doesn't accept.So Carlotta finds herself en route to the rimworld of Rothea III to take out a drug lord who has been encroaching on Gilroy's territory. The drug lord certainly won't be missed, but how can Carlotta reconcile an assassination job with her newfound rebel convictions? And how can she get Gilroy off her back, lest he threaten her and her comrades again? This is a novella of 18200 words or approximately 61 print pages in the Shattered Empire universe, but may be read as a standalone.Warning: There is some harsh language in this one, so sensitive souls should tread carefully.

Leseprobe

Debts to Pay

by Cora Buhlert

Bremen, Germany

Copyright © 2014 by Cora Buhlert

All rights reserved.

Cover image © Luca Oleastri, Dreamstime.com

Pegasus Pulp Publications

Mittelstraße 12

28816 Stuhr

Germany

www.pegasus-pulp.com

In the far future, humanity has spread out across the universe, colonised every corner of the galaxy and formed the Fifth Human Empire. It should have been an age of greatness and glory, the pinnacle of human achievement. But instead it was an age of misery and injustice, an age where the wealth of humanity was concentrated in the hands of a small clique of aristocrats and corporations, an age where freedom only meant the freedom to starve, an age where the Empire stood not for peace and justice but only for fear. Until one day, a scattered band of rebels came together to overthrow the Fifth Human Empire. These are their stories.

Debts to Pay

On the bridge of the private space-yacht Shadowstar, an indicator light flared up like a tiny red star, jolting the pilot out of her lazy reverie. The flashing red light signaled that the ship had reached the endpoint of a pre-programmed vector. Time to leave hyperspace.

Carlotta Valdez, current pilot of the Shadowstar, got busy at once and pressed a series of buttons and switches on the cockpit console. Deflector shields up. Cloaking device on. Ship ready for emergence into regular space.

Carlotta put her hand on the hyperspace throttle and hesitated. For some reason, she always hated leaving hyperspace. It was so peaceful here, perhaps the only truly peaceful place in the universe. Out here, there was nobody tracking you, nobody shooting at you, nobody blackmailing you, nobody looking down on you. In hyperspace you were invisible to the rest of the galaxy. Almost as if you didn’t exist.