Downtime

It's easy to say what you'll live for. The hard question is—what will you die for? Ten years ago Calla had been the center of Jason's life. Then Jason followed his career downtime, leaving Calla to the elite Praetorian Guard and separating them—but not forever. When they meet again, she's thirty years older and outranks him. The time-crossed pair are forced to work together on Mutare, an outback mudball suddenly in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war. Jason is determined to protect the indigenous Danae, a fiercely hunted species he believes is sentient. Calla's contingent brings more hunters and she's hiding something—something that could endanger everything on the planet. Calla must find the man who would destroy the universe to rule it, but nothing is quite what it seems. She doesn't have time to worry about Jason or the Danae, and yet both make her heart ache. With nobody left to trust but each other, they'll have to risk everything they hold dear. They are outmanned, outgunned, and out of time!