Tonya R. Moore

Imagine a ship so massive, it could swallow Jupiter whole. A ship so ancient, it has seen the birth of stars then witnessed them burn and become black dwarfs. Hegira is a leviathan, home to thousands of sapient alien races. The ship of legend was left behind by a nearly extinct race of beings called Starchasers. She's a beautiful behemoth, barreling across galaxies. Many seek to conquer this rare jewel, but to rule this ship, one must control her pilot.

Tarah Jackson died at sea. Late into the night of her funeral, the men who witnessed her death drink themselves into oblivion while wrestling with memories of a beastly encounter about which they dare not speak. Tarah's girlfriend, Uma, quietly wallows in her sorrow. Uma takes a bottle of rum and her fiddle to the sea. There she plays a song, beautiful and raw with grief. She drinks from the bottle, cries out to heaven and curses at the sea. As if to answer her dark prayer, a massive, many-tentacled monster rises up from the deep.