Under a New and Brilliant Sky

The smart city that secures the world's idyllic way of life is failing, and it's up to a single engineer to find out why. Engineer Elys Kundakçi has been on the run since the fascist Republic's secret police framed her for a disaster that wasn't her fault. When she's picked up by a squad of armored social workers from an independent planet, she finds herself in a much-needed safe harbor. The social workers rescued Elys so she can fix the station's smart city infrastructure that decides where people live, runs their economy, and coordinates social services. Her rescuers' leader is patient, compassionate, and distractingly attractive. Elys's friendship — and, she dares to hope, romance — with her grows while Elys works on the station's problems. As signs point toward nearly undetectable sabotage, Elys must find the programming error and the saboteur behind it before the smart city's mistakes reveal her location to the Republic operatives hunting her, or the Republic takes advantage of the independent planet's disarray to invade, kill Elys, and steal everything her hosts built their beautiful station to achieve.  Stearns writes measured, tense, and intense space opera, filled with a diverse selection of believable characters.— Reactor Magazine