S01E09 · Clamps, Mines, and Countdowns

The soft chime confirming their contracts has barely faded when the hull shudders. Val's hand lingers on the holographic interface, her golden signature still glowing on the conference room table. The numbers flash through her mind—enough for a real workshop, legitimate equipment, stability for Jotter after fifty years of patchwork survival.

Then Orriona's hologram dissolves into scattered particles as she redirects processing power, and her voice comes through flat and urgent: "Edgepoint Station Administration has designated this ship as Classification-7R: Unauthorized Artificially Operated Vessel."

Ghost ship. The automated impound request has already gone out to OSSA.

Seconds after signing on as crew, they're under siege. Armed units breach the hangar. The station's locking them down, and worse—there's hardware out there designed to make sure they never leave Edgepoint at all.

The mission briefing is clinical, efficient, and terrifying. They're strangers who just met, operating with untested equipment, facing trained mercenaries. The clock is ticking in minutes, not hours.

Val straps on her shield generator and catches Jotter's optical sensors. His concerned beeps ask the question neither of them voices: Is this what you want?

Fifty years they've scraped by on the frontier together. Fifty years of running from anything that looked like home or community. She'd told herself this was just one last job for enough credits to disappear completely.

But standing at the weapons locker, watching Dr. Jengu struggle under the weight of equipment he's never used in combat, watching Kai check his sidearms with the efficiency of someone who's survived worse—Val realizes something has already changed.

The running was always going to end somewhere.

The question is whether she's ready to stop.

WHAT TO EXPECT:

1. Audio drama adaptation of Legacy with cinematic sound design
2. A queer-norm galaxy (no homophobia, no coming-out angst—just space adventures)
3. First mission under fire
4. Ticking clock tension with multiple objectives
5. Strangers learning to function as crew
6. Grand, hopeful adventure with a massive heart

CONTENT NOTES: Combat violence, high-stakes action, time pressure

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