Gettin' Ugly

It was a dream come true. Bax had her long-lost soulmate Lior—aka Junker Man, aka J—on her rig, riding along on what shouldve been a simple run out to the research station Aerie, a weeks-long haul where shed have them all to herself, a scenario shed never imagined possible. But things slid sideways with a sickening lurch before the cargo was even half loaded, starting with the appearance of disturbingly realistic duplicates shadowing anyone whod recently been through transit. Christened uglies by her fellow shiprs, who didnt often appreciate a full-sized mirror even on their best days, it was a resumption of the strangeness Bax loathed, an intrusion from parts unknown she wished with all her being would slither back to the dank corner it had crawled from.

But doppelgängers soon became the least of her problems. A new threat had emerged, one that had nothing to do with what lay beyond the veil of dimensions or strange otherworldly critters. It was one that would drag her, Daniel, Marsh and Lior to the bottomless depths of humanitys capacity for cruelty, making choices and sacrifices that left little room for hope. A threat that would tear her world apart, leaving her holding the hollow fragments of her life in numb hands.