Icarus

A.D. 3487Taylor Neeran, Star-Killer.That's what she was being called throughout the Xathen dominion. Turn the minor star of the Franath binary system into a black hole, and they gave her that title. She was famous, infamous, whatever. It's not like it was a handful of stars, one star wasn't that many, the galaxy had plenty of them. But sometimes it was the small actions that got the most attention. One star to save a hundred unsuspecting planets and a trillion or so lives, in some ways it was more than a fair trade.It wasn't her fault the minor sun had failed to complete its transformation into a black hole and changed its spin. Instead, it had become a neutron star, a pulsar – tilted on its side, spraying death across the Franath system as it wobbled on its axis.Franath was now spoken in whispers or not at all, as if the word itself was cursed.But she was going to fix it.In order to save eight billion souls, Taylor Neeran, Star-Killer and Spirit-Mother of Aeden was going to tame a star.Or die trying.Of course, not actually die, that would help nobody. But she was going to try really, really hard… James Jacob (J J) Mathews grew up with his nose stuck in books. A voracious reader in his youth, he devoured all of the science fiction and fantasy books he could find at the local library. J.R.R. Tolkein, Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova, Larry Niven, Voltaire and Greg Bear were some of his early influences, with many other authors added to his bookshelf as time went on. Broadening out to read more genres as an adult, J J has always held a special place for fantasy and sci-fi.J J is married and lives in Hamilton, New Zealand with his wife and three boys, and writes in his spare time. A.D. 3485All Taylor wanted was to get to know her mother. Now, she may never get that chance.Taylor went along for the ride to help her mother survey a new planet, and the offer of a few extra course credits for doing field work certainly didn't hurt.A planet on the edge of disputed territory, sure, but the war with the Xathen had ended thirty years ago, and the Commonwealth had won. It didn't matter that the first survey ship failed to return, things like that happen during wartime.But this was just term break, with two whole months to work alongside her mother and get to know her better while she sharpened her Xenobiology skills in a verdant paradise.With any luck, she would graduate early.Then Taylor messed up, big-time.Now she was lost, alone and struggling to survive, stranded ten thousand light-years from home.