She checked the map. It showed nothing but clear space in this area. The closest habitable places listed were Anteris and the planet Lark, which is where she was headed.

Steering to the right, she managed to swerve enough to avoid being dragged by the gravitational pull of the moon.

Alex sighed in relief, her pulse beating a tattoo inside her head. Her relief was short-lived, though. As soon as she’d cleared the bluish tinge of the moon, a planet appeared before her. It had been hiding behind the moon. No matter how hard she tried to manually steer her way around, she wasn’t heading anywhere but straight for it.

The steering lever was jammed in the one position-forward.

The engine droned out, and the ship took a nose-dive.

“My ship is failing, and I’m going down. I repeat, I’m going down!” she yelled into her comm-unit.

She was falling into the planet, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do to stop it. She peered out the window. What the hell?There it was-a green and brown globe.

I’m plunging into a planet that doesn’t show up on my navigation charts.

Alex tried to adjust the steering lever, but her effort was in vain. The ship continued its downward trajectory. She wasn’t sure how she’d managed to get herself into this situation, but this unfamiliar planet was sucking Promisein.

The dash in front of her sparked. All the competing noises suddenly stopped as smoke and flames ignited simultaneously. The emergency siren echoed around her, adding to the panic already gripping her.

She reached forward and pressed the extinguisher button. At least that worked. The white spray killed the flames but probably ruined every control panel on her dash.