Scattered Hopes

Gaelin Starks wanted out of Dregs. He didn't mean this far out. Three million light-years from the Milky Way. Too far from an estranged wife and daughter he might never see again. He has a crew, as strange and dysfunctional as they come. And a moon-sized warship that can't get any of them home. The Stonefruit Galaxy is Fold country. And the Fold doesn't just kill worlds, they erase them. Whole species scrubbed from the records, from the maps, and the memories of every neighbor who used to know their names. That's their greatest trick: convincing those being eaten that nothing bad is happening. That all is as it should be. Some people remember anyway. The Scattered are an unlikely resistance: near-extinct species crammed into a single rebellion. But they're losing the war by inches. They scavenge and run. They bury their dead and don't say the names out loud, because the Fold is always listening. And yet, the Scattered have never had Gaelin Starks, a debt-collared exile with nothing left to lose. He has a warship that can take a fleet apart on its own and exactly one move left: stop running and fight. Gaelin never did like long odds. Although he hates losing more. Maybe, if any of t