Kevin W Bates

Prospector's Run Kevin W Bates

Holtz Mitsumi is desperate.

Massive riches in the form of forgotten tech lie hidden in the ruins of the First Stellar Civilization's dead, shattered worlds. For a prospector with luck and the right coordinates, they are ripe for the taking. Holtz Mitsumi thought he had both. He was wrong.

In the course of his failed expedition, Mitsumi stumbled on a mysterious alien artifact that invaded his mind and compelled him on a journey to find its origin. Now, Mitsumi frantically needs to get back to the stars. Unfortunately, Mitsumi is broke and in debt to his backers. Mounting an expedition to find the object's origin is impossible.

Blocked at every turn from finding another job in space, Mitsumi faces the prospect of having to give up his dream. Then an enigmatic stranger corners Mitsumi claiming to have solid leads to fabulous lost tech and offers to let Mitsumi captain a prospecting run, in exchange for a share of the voyage profits. Mitsumi now recognizes the story for what it is-a tired fairy tale repeated thousands of times a day in bars across the Ten Worlds and his offer isn't worth an empty oxygen tank to a vacuum stranded floater. Mitsumi had fallen for such a story once; he wouldn't again.

But when the stranger unknowingly shows Mitsumi an obscure connection to his alien object, Mitsumi agrees to captain the voyage. After scraping together a crew, Mitsumi embarks on one last run to finance his search. But the crew has secrets, some of them deadly. Before he knows it, Mitsumi picks up the perfect accessory for a struggling prospector-an implacable foe. Chased across the galaxy, Mitsumi wrestles with his unruly crew in an impossible bid to survive and find his treasure's secret.