Honor and Shadows: A Starlight’s Shadow Prequel Short Story

by Jessie Mihalik

Genres: General Fiction; Science Fiction; Space Opera

Synopsis

Honor and Shadows is a 10,000-word prequel novelette set just before the start of Hunt the Stars.

Captain Octavia Zarola needs an infusion of credits—fast—if she’s going to keep her close-knit bounty hunting crew paid and fed. Tracking down an escaped embezzler on a backwater planet should be a piece of cake, but bounties are rarely as easy as they seem.

As the crew closes in on their quarry, the hunt becomes entangled with a local criminal overlord, and Tavi will have to decide what’s more important: money or honor, and how much she’s willing to risk for either one.

 

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Release date: November 1, 2022

Publisher: NYLA

Print pages: 70

Sample

The man’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s your captain? I want to speak to him.”

I waved an arm at myself and gave him a sharp smile. “You’re looking at her. Octavia Zarola, at your service.”

The sneer was immediate and obvious. He muttered something in the local dialect that I didn’t need a translator to know wasn’t a compliment.

I drew my plas pistol as the movement in my peripheral vision solidified into two people, both bundled against the cold. “We may have a problem,” I said subvocally.

“Scanners show all three are armed,” Kee warned.

“Fantastic,” I muttered before drawing a second pistol and raising both. “I wouldn’t try it,” I said, pitching my voice to carry over the wind. “I spent a decade fighting the Valoffs, and I’m still alive to talk about it. You won’t find me an easy mark.”

“Just give us the supplies and we’ll let you go,” the older man in front of my stall said. “We won’t even rough up the pretty boy in the bar.”

I rolled my eyes. It never failed to amuse me when people discounted Eli’s many, many muscles just because he had a handsome face. “They’re going to jump you,” I told him over the comm. “Try not to hurt anyone too badly unless they escalate.”

“Aye-aye, Captain,” Eli’s cheerful voice responded. The man lived for a bar fight. This was probably going to be the highlight of his month.

I returned my attention to the group that was attempting to rob me. “My systems engineer is still aboard the ship and in full control of its vast and lethal weaponry. If I don’t kill you, she will. Walk away and I’ll forget this happened.”

The three of them communicated silently for a moment before deciding my pitiful pile of spare parts wasn’t worth their lives. They disappeared back into the town without a word.

I doubted that was the end of it, so I piled my supplies back onto the levcart and returned them to the ship. “Keep everything locked down,” I told Kee. “And find Hudson. I’m going to rescue Eli.”