Series: Queenships

Kato Ozark, crown prince and sol­dier, has just been cho­sen to pilot his family’s queen­ship. He’s trained his entire life for this hon­or, but it comes with a catch. It seems that First Engineer Mas’ud Tavana has also been cho­sen as the queen’s pilot. Mas’ud has no for­mal train­ing, and they both believe a mis­take has been made. But when an attack on a dis­tant Ozark queen forces them to work togeth­er, it’s clear their minds are bet­ter as one than apart.

They might even go on a prop­er date. Through mis­sion brief­in­gs and polit­i­cal­ly required
off­spring, the men­tal link their queen­ship forges between them only grows stronger. Within this bond they find strength in each oth­er. Then a rogue AI attacks their ship, rip­ping the queen open to the core. The two pilots feel it all; the assault destroys their con­nec­tion and tears them adrift into open space.

Kato and Mas’ud wake up in the med­ical bay of a rival fam­i­ly with no mem­o­ry of their queen­ship or each oth­er. Hailed as a war hero, Kato retrains as a king­ship pilot, prepar­ing to defend Earth against the AI. Mas’ud, dis­missed as per­ma­nent­ly bro­ken, strug­gles to redis­cov­er his own truth.

Their queen­ship is out there, wait­ing for her pilots to come home. The future of their fam­i­ly depends on it.