Novels by Konice

The silence didn’t last. It was a lie, a brief atmospheric pause before the universe decided to scream back at them."Ow! My ears! My actual, physical ears!" Orion bellowed, clutching the sides of his head as a sound like grinding glass tore through the cockpit."Stop complaining and look at the sensor readouts!" Magnus yelled, though he was currently floating three inches off the captain’s chair. "Or don't, because the sensors are currently convinced we’re inside a giant cup of tea!"Orion forced his eyes open, and the breath hitched in his throat. The Star-Skipper wasn’t in hyperspace. They weren’t even in the Reach anymore. The stars outside the viewport had been stretched into long, shimmering ribbons of neon pink and toxic lime green. The hull groaned, not with the sound of metal under pressure, but with a rhythmic, pulsing thrum that felt like a heartbeat."Uh, Vela? Why is the floor becoming transparent?" Theron squeaked. He was hugging a ceiling support beam, his legs kicking

"Dad," Orion said, his voice cracking slightly as he stared at the man he hadn’t seen in a decade. "Are you... are you seriously making toast right now?"Magnus Stargrave didn’t look up from the ancient, blackened heating element he was hovering a slice of synthetic sourdough over. "It’s a high-stress environment, Orion. My blood sugar is crashing, and this bunker hasn’t had a delivery of fresh supplies since the Hegemony forgot I existed. You want a slice? It’s a bit charred, but it’s got crunch.""We just ran through a field of hallucinogenic moss and dodged orbital lasers to find you!" Orion shouted, gesturing wildly at the heavy steel door that was still vibrating from the impact of plasma bolts outside. "I thought you were a political prisoner in a high-tech torture chamber, not a guy hosting a brunch for one!""It’s not brunch, it’s survival," Magnus grunted, finally flipping the toast with a pair of rusted needle-nose pliers. He looked over his shoulder, his eyes scanning Lyra

"I really hate your plans, Orion!" Cassian’s voice crackled through the comms, competing with the bone-shaking rattle of the Star-Skipper’s reentry shields. "Every time you say 'we're going to jail,' we actually end up in jail!""It’s not just jail, Cass! It’s a rescue mission!" Orion shouted back, his hands white-knuckled on the flight controls. "There’s a difference! Mostly in the intent!""The intent won't stop a rail-gun from turning us into space-dust!" Vela yelled from the engine room. "Cap, the heat sinks are screaming! If you don't level us out, we’re going to be the first toasted marshmallows in the Tartarus system!""Hold it together, everyone!" Lyra commanded, her voice remarkably steady despite the fact that her seat was vibrating at a frequency that suggested imminent disassembly. "We’re through the first layer of the atmosphere. Scanners are… wait. That can't be right."Orion squinted through the frost-rimmed viewport. "What? Did they lock onto us? Are the missiles comin

"I told you," Orion grinned, adjusting his collar with a flourish. "It’s the hair. It inspires confidence.""Confidence is one thing, Orion. Glowing is another," Lyra said, her voice dropping into a register of genuine concern. She pulled back her sleeve, and the bridge went silent. The small red mark from the dart was gone, replaced by a web of pulsing, neon-blue veins that reached from her shoulder down to her elbow. "Is it supposed to look like I swallowed a star?""Vela! Theron! Get over here!" Orion yelled, his bravado vanishing instantly.Vela slid out from under a console, a wrench still in her hand. She took one look at Lyra’s arm and whistled through her teeth. "Yikes. That’s not just a tracker, Cap. That’s a Hegemony 'Leash.' It’s a neuro-toxin combined with a localized EMP broadcast. It’s designed to keep prisoners compliant by, you know, slowly shutting down their nervous system while screaming their location to every patrol within ten sectors.""Can you fix it?" Orion ask

"That too! It’s a very long name!"Orion scrambled into the cockpit, nearly tripping over a loose floor grating. He slammed into the co-pilot’s seat, his eyes locked on the long-range scanners. The Aegis Reach loomed ahead on the display—a jagged scar of nebula gas and high-frequency sensor nets."Cassian, tell me you’ve got a ghost signal ready," Orion said, his hands hovering over the thruster overrides."I’ve got something better," Cassian replied, his fingers flying across the console. "See that big, ugly hunk of metal on the long-range? That’s a Class-M military freighter, the Iron Sovereign. It’s hauling heavy munitions into the Reach. It’s got a sensor shadow the size of a small moon.""You want to tail a military ship?" Lyra asked, straping herself into the tactical station. "Orion, if we get caught in their slipstream, the turbulence alone will shred the hull. Not to mention their rear-facing scanners.""That’s why we’re going to be very, very quiet," Orion said, grinning. "C

"My ship? My beautiful, falling-apart ship is a map?"Orion stared at the screen Lyra was holding, his jaw practically hitting the floor of the bridge. The glowing blue schematic of the Star-Skipper was overlaid with a complex lattice of golden lines—data points that didn't correspond to any standard flight system."Not just a map, Orion. It’s embedded into the structural resonance of the hull," Lyra said, her voice Tight with a mixture of professional awe and mounting dread. "Darius didn't just steal a file. He stole the key to reading the vibration patterns we've been putting out every time we jump.""So, the rattling? That wasn't just a loose bolt in the galley?" Orion asked, his eyes wide."It was a frequency, you idiot," a cool, feminine voice drifted from the ceiling speakers. "And honestly, it was an incredibly annoying one. I’ve been trying to filter it out for three years."Orion jumped, looking up at the nearest intercom. "Selene! You’re back online? And since when do you ha