Loud, and Friends

Four peaceful alien dirigibles, living in the upper atmosphere of the gas giant Galtus, find themselves sucked into a flying metal behemoth and left to starve. 

Max, stripped-down copy of Zion Station's rogue AI, temporarily installed in the ghost ship Suyash, discovers the two surviving aliens in the ship's gas pod. Given command of the ship by Police Chief Jones, he's tasked with returning the dirigibles home without detection and then forging a partnership with their culture to keep them safe from the genocidal human Consortium.

But the younger dirigible is dying, and its parent is willing to sacrifice itself to save it. Can Max get them home alive?

Loud, and Friends, fifth in M.E. Owen's Zion Station series, continues the story begun with Dirigibles at L5.