The Celeste Series

There are days when the universe doesn’t much care what you want and doesn’t leave you any choices. When a serious mechanical problem comes up that can’t be fixed out in space, you have to put into the nearest port, no matter where it is. Unfortunately, that place is Downshift City. Downshift City is not a nice place to live. Unless you happen to be one of the upper-level Corps, that is. They think it is just fine. They would, they are the ones that made it that way and they made it that way for their own benefit.

Mars Station is just a really nice place; it’s known as the home of the fresh start. All of the people that live there are really nice too, even if they are a bit odd by some peoples’ standards. Unfortunately, some of them are just a little bit odder than the others. But first, the Celeste and its crew have to get there. The ship is running well and everything looks good. This should be a simple run without any problems to speak of. After all, the Celeste is a well-run ship and well-run ships rarely have problems. Even when they do, they are perfectly able to fix them and keep moving.

Gaia Station is a bit different from most stations. For one thing, it is divided into countries and, where you have countries, you can have a war. Of course, a war on a space station isn’t quite the conflict you would imagine. This particular one got started over a rude remark about somebody’s hat. Given that it started for such a comical reason, it seems entirely reasonable that the crew of the Celeste might be able to help stop it. The fact that they had to enlist the help of scheming hotel keeper, a chef, and a dominatrix seems entirely appropriate under the circumstances.

Times are changing aboard the Celeste. With a new captain and a new head trader, things will never be the same again. But will they be better or worse? That is the question. Can the crew recover the dynamics that have made them such successful traders or can they improve on them? And, in the meantime, can they stay out of jail?