Tangerine

It starts even before she steps foot on Tangerine, while she is still on Earth and unaware of her legacy: the pursuit of her treasure by a greedy but powerful collector. Dr. Ava Majestic has just finished her coursework at the university, graduating with advanced degrees in the sciences, and is ready to begin a new job when her parents are killed in a crash. With nothing to keep her on-planet, Ava takes a new position as an interstellar biologist, traveling through space with her small feline-like companion, Pisk. Her work involves testing and analyzing planets for colonization. When her schedule takes her to the planet Tangerine, she discovers a secret hidden from her all her life. Her legacy: a time travel device. Now she is pursued by a handsome rogue hired to follow her, brutal abductors, and the sinister collector determined to possess her treasure.

Less a science fiction novel than simply a tale set in the future, Tangerine follows Ava Majestic as she explores the wild orange beauty of Tangerine, struggles to accept the deaths of her parents, learns how to use her legacy, and confronts the powerful man who will not take no for an answer. The conflict at the heart of the tale is between Ava and her nemesis, Augustus Agnotico, the ruthless collector who hounds her.