Space Pirates!

Captain Rask is broke, hunted, and very nearly out of oxygen. When a botched heist lands him a legendary ship with a damaged AI—and a crew of misfits who can’t agree on breakfast, let alone survival—he does what any half-decent pirate would: runs. But The Meridian is more than a getaway vehicle. It’s carrying secrets the Empire would kill for, and worse—its new passengers might actually start trusting each other.

When the derelict warship Vigilance drifts out of a burn-scarred nebula, Captain Rask thinks it's just another salvage job. Then the only person awake on board—a perfect, female clone of him—calls him by name. And that's when the trouble starts. Her cryo-pod wasn't the only one warming up. The ship's dormant soldiers are beginning to stir, an ancient Imperial protocol is broadcasting across the sector, and something buried in the Vigilance's systems has decided Rask belongs to it.

ONE DERELICT SHIP. ONE ROTTEN DEAL. ONE CREW ABOUT TO BE DOUBLE-CROSSED. When Captain Rask agrees to a salvage op in contested Imperial space, it sounds simple: get in, grab the goods, get out. Easy credits. No politics. No moral complications. Naturally, it’s a trap.

All Captain Rask wanted was a quiet salvage stop. Instead, the Meridian drops out of FTL over a quarantined terraforming moon no one is supposed to remember—and definitely no one is meant to visit. Erebos was written off decades ago. Officially, the plague won. Unofficially, survivors remain. They’re organised, intelligent, and determined to keep the truth buried. They offer help and half-answers—while the Meridian suffers a string of “accidents” that look anything but accidental.