It was my last day on Earth, one way or another. Turns out that was only the start.

Lyra was not the fledgling colony I expected. The beam spat me out four hundred years too late. Instead of a vanguard, I was a burden—a refugee. With my only friends lost in the timestream.

The city of Vala

stretched over the continent like a great beast. Its arteries filled with reverse engineered alien tech, from the previous tenants.

I was more alien to the people than the bluetech that carried it. Tech that could levitate cars and mutate people. The very tech my skills qualified me to work on made me a potential pawn for the superpowered Lyra elites and underworld cutters alike.

Faced with gangsters, scuttling nightmare creatures, whispering alien fragments, and an actual princess, it would be easy to lose my head.

Luckily, I had someone to hold my hand, making each threat, slur, and bruise worth it.

They gave me the courage to fight for what I found in that divided city. New friends, new allies, a new life… and a new way of being loved.

I survived the end of one world. This one may not be any kinder. I can only hope I have what it takes to survive Lyra, and its people.

“Sometimes we just have to wait a bit for forever.”