Rust Gambit

She trades memories for survival. But some debts can't be repaid.

Cass Vero was a Colonial Fleet mechanic until she exposed a conspiracy and got court-martialed for her trouble. Now she babysits dead ships in a forgotten scrapyard, counting down the days until her own junker-the Rustbucket-gets chopped for parts.

Then the ship starts talking.

The rust eating through its hull isn't decay. It's memory. Ancient. Hungry. Alive. And it has chosen Cass as its new pilot.

Now the alien Masters are hunting her. The Colonial Fleet wants her silenced. And the only way to survive is to trade pieces of herself-her mother's face, her first kiss, the smell of rain-for enough power to fight back.

But the rust doesn't just take memories. It keeps them. Hoards them. Builds a prison of stolen selves beneath the deck plates.

And when Cass discovers what's really hiding in her ship, she'll face an impossible choice:

Free ten thousand screaming ghosts-or become one of them.

For readers of The Expanse and Ancillary Justice, RUST GAMBIT: UNWANTED is a visceral space opera about identity, sacrifice, and the things we refuse to lose-even when we can't remember why they matter.