Release date: September 18, 2018
Subgenre: Science fiction, Cyberpunk
About Orbit:
Ciaan Gennett isn’t green, despite the brand of light hair that betrays
her heritage: an Earth mother. A mother she remembers but doesn’t know,
who left one day and never came back. Ciaan’s as metal as her home
planet—cold and hard and full of so many cracks she’s trying to ignore
that she doesn’t have time to wonder about questions that don’t get
answers.
After one too many run-ins with the law, Ciaan finds herself sentenced to probation at a port facility and given an ultimatum: Prove that your potential is worth believing in. With help from her best friend Tidoris, Ciaan stays away from trouble—and trouble stays away from her. But when a routine refueling turns into a revelation, Ciaan and Tidoris find themselves forced into an alliance with an Earth captain of questionable morality and his stoic, artificially-grown first officer. Their escalating resistance against bureaucratic cover-ups begins unraveling a history of human monstrosity and an ugly truth that Ciaan isn’t so sure she wants to discover.
Now they all must decide how far they are willing to dig into humanity's dark desperation—and what they are willing to do about what digs back.
After one too many run-ins with the law, Ciaan finds herself sentenced to probation at a port facility and given an ultimatum: Prove that your potential is worth believing in. With help from her best friend Tidoris, Ciaan stays away from trouble—and trouble stays away from her. But when a routine refueling turns into a revelation, Ciaan and Tidoris find themselves forced into an alliance with an Earth captain of questionable morality and his stoic, artificially-grown first officer. Their escalating resistance against bureaucratic cover-ups begins unraveling a history of human monstrosity and an ugly truth that Ciaan isn’t so sure she wants to discover.
Now they all must decide how far they are willing to dig into humanity's dark desperation—and what they are willing to do about what digs back.
Excerpt:
[Prologue]
78 Years Later
NIGHT HAD ALREADY
CREPT ACROSS Toi and the Earth loomed—huge and menacing and beautiful—just past
the crooked rooftops, as it slowly consumed the sky. Across Toi’s dented metal
streets two sets of footsteps pounded out a frenzied rhythm that echoed just
slightly, like a spring rain over tin shingles.
I’ve got to lose him, was all that Ciaan could think. The words
looped through her mind: I’ve got to lose him, I’ve got to lose him, I’ve got to lose him.
She didn’t
care where she was;
she barely noticed when the buildings began to shift from the shiny,
newly-seamed
ones of her neighborhood to the rusted, warped
clusters she’d been warned about. She didn’t
care that she couldn’t remember how
long it’d been since she heard the curfew
alarm; she’d
still been racing past gleaming lacquered storefronts
then. All that mattered
now was getting as much distance between Melean
and herself as her
stubby legs could manage.
“Run all you
want, greenie! You’re not gonna get away from
me!” Melean’s
threat
was broken up by his
wheezing breaths.
Ciaan
scanned the street directly in front
of her, noting sharp turns at
small intersections or down narrow alleys
that she thought of taking always a second too late. Fear began gnawing
sharp in the pit of her stomach as she realized that all the thick
acrylic windows were closed
and most likely locked here. No
one would hear her scream; or if they did, they
wouldn’t care.
She decided,
as she missed another possible turn, that her
best bet was to stay on
this main street. No one was going to
come out of their house to help her,
but she might run into some straggler
coming back
past
curfew. And eventually they’d be out
of this sector and then maybe she’d
be able
to scream. At any rate, the main road
kept her visible and out of dark dead-ends
where she’d really be in trouble.
She listened behind
her for Melean’s
heavy breathing and
footfalls, trying to gauge how
far apart
they
were and whether or not
it would be safe to slow down a bit. Her
own breathing had
become
ragged and forced and
her legs were shaking beneath
her. She’d never
really been
a runner—despite
her school’s mandatory rote physical drills.
She could manage shorter
distances well
enough, but long distances always gave her side cramps. Plus, she’d never had
to run for her life
in organized
athletics, so this was a whole
other thing entirely.
The good
news was that Melean seemed to be just as bad
at murderous chasing as Ciaan was at terrified running.
He
wasn’t big in either muscles or fat, nor was he thin and
gangly like many of the other boys on Toi,
so she’d assumed he’d be better at
it. He was, Ciaan imagined,
what Earth boys looked like:
tall enough, strong enough,
handsome enough. The
only thing he was
too much of was mean. That’s what made him a
p-kid.
Ciaan,
on the other hand, looked
exactly like a p-kid.
Dark-skinned like Melean (but blotchy where he was smooth) with an undergrown, slightly disproportionate body
that someone could look at and
not quite be able to put their finger on what
was off. Only they could with her, because of the
one stark difference between
her
and the other p-kids: her
hair.
She could feel it slapping against
her neck as
she ran, thick woven braids
of bright, gold-pale hair. The
color they all said only Earth people could grow,
the color she had never seen on any head but her own. The color that branded her forever as
someone who wasn’t a real p-kid.
Melean,
with his close-cropped
black braids, knew what that color meant—that it meant soft
and weak and vulnerable and green like the wilting Earth where it came from—and that was why he tormented her
every chance he got. That was
why
he was chasing her,
and that was why she couldn’t
let him catch her.
“Come on you…filthy…little…brat!” Melean’s
voice
sounded gummy—like he had
too much saliva in his mouth, or not
enough.
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About Leigh Hellman:
LEIGH HELLMAN is a queer/asexual and genderqueer writer, originally from the western suburbs of Chicago, and a graduate of the MA Program for Writers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After gaining the ever-lucrative BA in English, they spent five years living and teaching in South Korea before returning to their native Midwest.
Leigh’s short fiction and creative nonfiction work has been featured in Hippocampus Magazine, VIDA Review, and Fulbright Korea Infusion Magazine. Their critical and journalistic work has been featured in the American Book Review, the Gwangju News magazine, and the Windy City Times.
Their first novel, Orbit, is a new adult speculative fiction story now available through Snowy Wings Publishing. They also have a historical fantasy piece included in the SWP anthology, Magic at Midnight.
Leigh is a strong advocate for full-day breakfast menus, all varieties of dark chocolate, building a wardrobe based primarily on bad puns, and bathing in the tears of their enemies.
Leigh’s short fiction and creative nonfiction work has been featured in Hippocampus Magazine, VIDA Review, and Fulbright Korea Infusion Magazine. Their critical and journalistic work has been featured in the American Book Review, the Gwangju News magazine, and the Windy City Times.
Their first novel, Orbit, is a new adult speculative fiction story now available through Snowy Wings Publishing. They also have a historical fantasy piece included in the SWP anthology, Magic at Midnight.
Leigh is a strong advocate for full-day breakfast menus, all varieties of dark chocolate, building a wardrobe based primarily on bad puns, and bathing in the tears of their enemies.
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