Synopsis: Solaria Rising: Shakedown In The Spillway

A hundred galaxies over and ten thousand years in the future exists the MegaGlobe, an immense sphere of space claimed by --- though hardly ruled by --- the Gaean Colonies. Doctor Shayma of the Gaean Colony L'Aq, a celebrated civilian Master Analyst, finds herself serving aboard yet another capital ship of the line, even after she'd thought she was free. However, this posting, to =Solaria=, promises to be her last --- she'll implement her Advanced Analysis Protocols on this ultimate ship of war, prove that her Protocols work in pitched battle, and then, finally, she can retreat to a lab, seeking answers to questions no one has asked in over six hundred years.

Solaria, one of ten capital ships in the Colonial military, has the toughest patrol responsibilities. The Spillway is a vast ribbon nebula, the bulk of which extends into Solaria's patrol wedge, dividing it almost in two. The radioactive clouds of dust and gas confound sensors, retard exploration, impede navigation, and attract every criminal, pirate, privateer, slaver, and undesirable in the MegaGlobe with a ship and a masecannon.

Bringing order to the systems in and adjacent to the Spillway requires a special ship and crew, and Solaria is up to the task. Solaria's command crew are all former pilots, exceptional men possessing the preternatural reflexes required to fly a vraptor. Solaria's Flight Colonel Moonblaster of Danchia--- head of all flight operations --- and her Flight Captain, Treval of Dirad --- head of the vraptor cadre --- are two of the most celebrated wingmen to ever launch from a flight deck, not to mention being the closest of friends. But a year ago, Solaria and her vraptor cadre were ambushed and almost destroyed. Ever since, the criminal activity in the Spillway has escalated, and the cohesiveness of Solaria's crew, including that of Moonblaster and Treval, has disintegrated; the most decorated wingmen in Fleet history no longer fly together.

Doctor Shayma finds herself aboard a ship where she has no real place, where her Protocols are seen as useless, and where the battles, with enemies and "allies" alike, seem to have no beginning and no end. Fortunately, she only has to be there for a three-week shakedown campaign, to adjust her Protocols to work in Solaria's particular circumstances. Three weeks, and she's free --- free to live on a planet for the first time in her life, free to submerge herself in the esoteric and rarefied atmosphere of a research lab, free to hide ...

To her surprise, Shayma relearns the sheer allure of life lived sliding along the Spillway: the bone-deep satisfaction of saving lives, the fierce allure of employing all of her skills to solving real problems, the carnal magnetism of a warrior fresh from the fight.

Now all she has to do is figure out how to survive the next three weeks ...