The Celeste Series

There are days when the universe doesn’t much care what you want and doesn’t leave you any choices. When a serious mechanical problem comes up that can’t be fixed out in space, you have to put into the nearest port, no matter where it is. Unfortunately, that place is Downshift City.

Downshift City is not a nice place to live. Unless you happen to be one of the upper-level Corps, that is. They think it is just fine. They would, they are the ones that made it that way and they made it that way for their own benefit.

For the other ninety-eight percent of the population, it’s two steps away from living in hell.

It’s definitely not the sort of place that Joanne, captain of the Celeste, or her family crew of thirty women, would want to go. As Joanne herself puts it, “Even the corruption is corrupt.” Paying a bribe or two is only to be expected but, when you do, you expect the recipient to stay bribed.

Even with her years of trading experience, Joanne will struggle to turn a profit here. However, she does have an ace or two up her sleeve. One of them is that she is a member in good standing of the Interstellar Woodworkers Guild, which can be a lot more useful than you might have imagined…