The Toll

Mika Dessin wakes in a gutted freighter with nine days of air, a burned-out courier implant, and no memory of the crew frozen around her. Hidden behind her ear is a data shard only her modified brain can read: the blueprint for star travel without the relay gates that keep billions of workers tethered where they were born. Every repair that keeps the shard alive burns away another year of who she used to be. The dynasty that owns the gates has her sister. The countdown has already started.