Quite Possibly Heroes

He was born bent. He refuses to die broken.

Raised a merchant prince and heir to the family business, Seamus mac Donnacha expects to follow in his crime lord father’s footsteps, profiting from the indiscretions of saints and sinners alike. But when Seamus returns from his apprentice cruise maimed, disgraced, and branded a slaver he discovers he’s no longer needed. Disowned and tossed down the Trinity system gravity well, Seamus wants to do as his father demands.

Crawl away and die.

Maybe he will, once he’s kept his word, and helped his friends defeat the evil spreading from star to star. He knows more about that evil than any man alive. It’s been inside him.

Seamus doesn’t want to defy his father. And he doesn’t want to war with his family. Only a dead man would dare to cross them. Only a man who deserved to pay for his sins. Crawl away and die. Seamus doesn’t know what to think about that. But he knows exactly what to say.

“Make me.”

Elsewhere…

Ciarán mac Diarmuid, Wisp and the crew of Quite Possibly Alien come face to face with the enemy in a confrontation that will change the course of history and alter forever the landscape of the wider world. Ancient alliances are shattered as civil war tears through both the League and the Ojinate, and a new player, the Eight Banners Empire arises to threaten a delicate balance of power four centuries in the making.

Macer Gant isn’t idle either, and when he isn’t stealing starships and mediating the love/hate relationship between headstrong Merchant Captain Aoife nic Cartaí and Max Violent, footie maniac and captain of the superluminal tug Tractor Four Square, he’s taking on the most powerful navy in space. Not all at once, mind you. That would be stupid.

It all comes together as the three former Academy roommates and the war cat Wisp combine their strengths and battle evil in a galaxy-spanning brawl that will make them or break them, and either save humanity or wipe it from the stars.

It could turn out either way and Seamus would still call it a win. It isn’t the idea of dying that Seamus objects to. It’s the crawling away. So prop him up and face him toward the enemy. Because this ends here and now.