Dead Ice✔️

A companion novella to The Shadow Wars.

In the farthest reaches of space lies an isolated mining planet called Dis: on the way to nowhere and in the middle of nowhere, it is of little importance to anyone but those occupying it. In the polar regions of the planet a handful of research and support sites reside, carving out a miserable existence among the frozen wastelands, eternally shrieking winds, and subzero temperatures.

Here sits Frost Station. A cobbled-together research outpost that is home to a mere handful of personnel. Two months into a six month haul, these people are all out here for a reason. Some have been exiled, others have imposed their own.

For John Marshall, the job is a break from a world he no longer feels capable of coping with. Counting on the bland monotony of boredom and routine to keep his lack of faith in himself at bay, he's happy to deal with the everyday problems of maintaining a distant outpost.

But all this comes to a disastrous halt when a ship crashes just outside the base, right about the same time their communications mysteriously fail. As they pull bodies from the wreckage and try to solve the enigma of what happened, it becomes clear that something has gone horribly wrong when the only survivor from the wreck dies, then comes back to life...