What will she spend her rapidly growing quantity of credits on? How has Earth managed to build a fusion powered starship without Talent? Maisie thinks it’s a bad sign that Earth has named them the ‘Valkyrie Class’ and that Russia, China, Europe and USA have all switched their military budgets to co-operate and build Valkyries, all managed by the Solar Alliance. The Wildgrave Plonnis seeks to understand by questioning Maisie while helping her to spend her new found wealth. She’s still the only Tellurian to ever leave the Solar System, till the first Valkyrie ‘jumps’ just beyond the Kuiper belt.
The cover is a photo-montage by Michael Watterson.
About 133,450 words