The Blighted Stars

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.Copyright © 2023 by Megan E. O’KeefeExcerpt from The Fractured Dark copyright © 2023 by Megan E. O’KeefeExcerpt from August Kitko and the Mechas from Space copyright © 2022 by Alex WhiteCover design by Lauren PanepintoCover illustration by Jamie JonesCover copyright © 2023 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.Author photograph by Joey HewittHachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.OrbitHachette Book Group1290 Avenue of the AmericasNew York, NY 10104orbitbooks.netFirst Edition: May 2023Simultaneously published in Great Britain by OrbitOrbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group.The Orbit name and logo are trademarks of Little, Brown Book Group Limited.The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to hachettespeakersbureau.com or email [email protected] books may be purchased in bulk for business, educational, or promotional use. For information, please contact your local bookseller or the Hachette Book Group Special Markets Department at [email protected] of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataNames: O’Keefe, Megan E., 1985– author.Title: The Blighted stars / Megan E. O’Keefe.Description: First Edition. | New York, NY : Orbit, 2023. | Series: The devoured world ; book 1Identifiers: LCCN 2021061174 | ISBN 9780316290791 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780316290807 (ebook)Subjects: GSAFD: Science fiction.Classification: LCC PS3615.K437 B55 2023 | DDC 813/.6—dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021061174ISBNs: 9780316290791 (trade paperback), 9780316290807 (ebook)E3-20230415-JV-NF-ORI Contents CoverTitle PageCopyrightDedicationMapOneTwoThreeFourFiveSixSevenEightNineTenElevenTwelveThirteenFourteenFifteenSixteenSeventeenEighteenNineteenTwentyTwenty-OneTwenty-TwoTwenty-ThreeTwenty-FourTwenty-FiveTwenty-SixTwenty-SevenTwenty-EightTwenty-NineThirtyThirty-OneThirty-TwoThirty-ThreeThirty-FourThirty-FiveThirty-SixThirty-SevenThirty-EightThirty-NineFortyForty-OneForty-TwoForty-ThreeForty-FourForty-FiveForty-SixForty-SevenForty-EightForty-NineFiftyFifty-OneFifty-TwoFifty-ThreeFifty-FourFifty-FiveFifty-SixFifty-SevenFifty-EightFifty-NineSixtySixty-OneSixty-TwoSixty-ThreeSixty-FourSixty-FiveSixty-SixSixty-SevenSixty-EightSixty-NineSeventyEpilogueAcknowledgmentsDiscover MoreExtras Meet the AuthorA Preview of The Fractured DarkA Preview of August Kitko and the Mechas from SpaceAlso by Megan E. O’KeefePraise for Megan E. O’Keefe and the Protectorate Series For Tina Gower Explore book giveaways, sneak peeks, deals, and more.Tap here to learn more. ONETarquinThe AmaranthTarquin Mercator stood on the command bridge of the finest spaceship his father had ever built and hoped he wasn’t about to make a fool of himself. Serious people crewed the console podiums all around him, wrist-deep in holos that managed systems Tarquin was reasonably certain he could name, but there ended the extent of his knowledge. The intricate inner workings of a state-of-the-art spaceship were hardly topics covered during his geology studies.Despite Tarquin’s lack of expertise, being Acaelus Mercator’s son placed him as second-in-command. Below Acaelus, and above the remarkably more qualified mission captain, a stern woman named Paison.That captain was looking at him now—expectant, deferential. Thin, golden pathways resembling circuitry glittered on her skin, printed into her current body to aid her as a pilot. Sweat beaded between Tarquin’s shoulder blades.“My liege,” Captain Paison said, all practiced obeisance, and while he desperately wished that she was addressing his father, her light grey eyes didn’t move from Tarquin. “We are approximately an hour’s flight from the prearranged landing site. Would you like to release the orbital survey drone network?”Tarquin hoped his relief didn’t show. Scouting the planet for deposits of relkatite was the one job for which he felt firmly footed.“Yes, Captain. Do we have visual on the planet?”“Not yet, my liege.” She expanded a vast holographic display from her console, revealing the cloud-draped world below. “The weather is against us, but the drone network should be able to punch through it in the next few hours.”“Hold off on landing until I can confirm our preliminary survey data. We wouldn’t want to put the ship down too far from a viable mining site.”Polite chuckles all around. Tarquin forced a smile at their faux camaraderie and pulled up a holo from his own console, reviewing the data the survey drones had retrieved before the mining ships Amaranth and Einkorn had taken flight for the tedious eight-month voyage to Sixth Cradle.Not that he’d been awake for that journey. His mind and the minds of the entire crew had been safely stored away in the ship’s databases, automated systems in place to print key personnel when they drew within range of low-planet orbit. When food was so expensive, there was no point in feeding people who weren’t needed to work during the trip.Tarquin’s father put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a friendly shake. “Excited to see a cradle world?”“I can’t wait,” he said honestly. When he’d been a child, Tarquin’s mother had taken him to Second Cradle shortly before its collapse. Those memories of that rare, Earthlike world were vague. Tarquin smiled up into eyes a slightly darker shade of hazel than his own.At nearly 160 years old, Acaelus chose to strike an imposing figure with his prints—tall, solidly built, a shock of pure white hair that hinted at his advanced age. It was difficult to look into that face and see anything but the father he’d known as a child—stern but kind. A man who’d fought to have Tarquin’s mind mapped as early as possible so that he could be printed into a body that better suited him after the one he’d been born into hadn’t quite fit.Hard to see through that, to the man whose iron will and vast fortune leashed thousands to his command.“My liege,” Captain Paison said, a wary edge to her voice, “I apologize, but it appears there was an error in the system. The survey drones have been released already, or perhaps were never loaded into place.”“What?” Tarquin accessed those systems via his own console. Sure enough, the drone bays were empty. “How could that have happened?”“I—I can’t say, my liege,” Paison said.The fear in her voice soured Tarquin’s stomach. Before he could