Eryx is part of a team of scientists charged with monitoring and protecting relocated animals on a privately owned planet. When sensors indicate poachers, Eryx leaves base to confront them, only to lose his way in a sudden snow. After trudging to a nearby observation station for shelter, he comes across an unexpected intruder.<br><br>Smuggler Leander flies an old, sometimes unreliable ship. When the engine starts to fail, he attempts to set down on the nearest planet where he’s stashed supplies, but his descent turns into a crash, and he’s forced to take shelter wherever he can.<br><br>The two can’t possibly trust each other, but storm projections show they’ll be stuck together for days. Worse, the poachers aren’t letting a little inclement weather stop them, and they’re armed and ready to kill. Can Leander and Eryx put aside their differences and save the animals -- and themselves -- before something disastrous happens?

Under Snow and Stars

Something warm and overwhelming welled up inside Leander. He realized he was happy to be here, with Eryx, snowed inside this small base with terrible food and no entertainment. Of all the shitty situations he’d been in, this one had turned out the best. He’d snagged some spare parts, a pricey interference generator, and a man. The snow could last forever as far as he was concerned.


He returned to the kitchen to find the coffee ready, then poured two mugs before returning to the bed. “Wake up or I’ll drink your coffee,” he said, setting Eryx’s mug on the rock floor beside him. Leander then increased the lighting a little, thinking incrementally was a fair way to get up. “Imagine being stuck here for days with no coffee…”


“You bastard,” mumbled Eryx, but he grabbed the coffee cup. “Can’t remember the last time I slept that well. You got a decent bed on that ship of yours?”


Chapter 32