Lieutenant Commander Ailith Hardin has a problem with authority.

It's not her non-regulation gunslinger hat and quick-draw holster that got her transferred three times in nine months. It's her habit of treating orders like suggestions and regulations like punchlines that has made her the most decorated—and most unwanted—officer in the Alliance Fleet.

Captain Aris Thorn has a problem with Security Chiefs.

Five candidates have walked into his office. Five have walked out—or ran. The crew whispers that the position is cursed, that something about their enigmatic Captain drives good officers to desperation.

Now Hardin faces Captain Aris Thorn—A man who knows the regulations like how regular people know how to breathe.

But when she strolls into Thorn's office wearing that infamous hat, something unexpected happens. Instead of the usual ten-minute rejection, they engage in a battle of wits that lasts nearly an hour. For the first time in years, someone isn't afraid of him. For the first time since leaving the super secret squirrel land of classified military operations, someone appreciates her particular brand of controlled chaos.

The ANS Dominion is bound for the outer rim—pirate territory where ships disappear and crews are sold into slavery. In a region where the Alliance's enemies use brainwashing and torture. But as the ship ventures deeper into dangerous space, the real threat may not be the pirates waiting in the void.

It might be the growing attraction between a Captain with dark secrets and a Security Chief who refuses to be broken.

Some rules are meant to be bent. Some authority is meant to be challenged. And some partnerships are forged in the space between insubordination and respect.

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