Whispering Skin

Olivia Jelani will cross galaxies, but her body must stay behind.

In 2995 a race from another galaxy has come to the Sovereign Alliance with a proposition. The self-described "natals" preside over a multi-species syndicate, the Empyrean Symbiotry, made up of eight other races. And humanity, if all goes well, stands to be the ninth.

After decades of comfortable routine, Olivia has gone from writing poetry to writing about poetry to avoiding writing entirely. If not for the pain of her chronic illness, her days might be a monotonous blur. But when a Sovereign Alliance representative arrives on her doorstep with a proposition of his own—that she join the human delegation through the wormhole—she must make the boldest decision of her life, not just whether to leave behind the familiarities of her routine existence, but her own body, too. Because the alien wormholes allow only the natal physiology to pass through.

Drafted for all the wrong reasons and coming to terms with her new alien skin, Olivia will find herself facing questions that may unravel everything she knows. Has her consciousness been truly migrated or is she just an approximation of her former self? Who is she if she's no longer Olivia?

And can she ever return to her frail human form?