Star Relocation

When World Command orders Remus and Zira Sullivan to establish a colony for Earth's homeless on the sentient planet Ageron 17, they discover that the world—and its intelligent inhabitants—will not tolerate extraction.

Command recalls Remus and Zira Sullivan, now in their early fifties, from Chorix 87W with a new assignment—establish a rehabilitation colony on Ageron 17 for Earth's addicted and homeless population. Command frames it as humanitarian—therapy, medical care, and a fresh start. But Remus and Zira recognize the machinery beneath the language. The settlers will be sorted by gender. The men will work the diamond mines. The women will labor the land. And once they're no longer useful, they'll disappear.

When Ageron itself begins to resist—when the planet's intelligent natives emerge from the deep calderas to protect the vulnerable—Remus and Zira face an impossible choice.