The Street of the Phoenix: The Drath Series, #18

By Meyari McFarland

Chinoso wasn't sure what was up with the Phoenix. Decent ship. Bit battered and the sheer number of minor repairs needed was odd.

But the crew looked at her like she was Drath when she gave them what they needed to take care of their own stuff. Not to mention the whole terror of getting every little thing 'certified' instead of just fixed.

Figuring that out was easy enough. Probably. Figuring out what to do about her attraction to Captain Marie Davidovic?

Yeah. Lots harder.

Street of the Phoenix is a SF novella filled with found family, rebuilding your life and taking chances that's sure to stick with you once you're done.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Meyari McFarland
• Release date: Jan 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386659518

Meyari McFarland

Meyari McFarland has been telling stories since she was a small child. Her stories range from SF and Fantasy adventures to Romances but they always feature strong characters who do what they think is right no matter what gets in their way. Her series range from Space Opera Romance in the Drath series to Epic Fantasy in the Mages of Tindiere world. Other series include Matriarchies of Muirin, the Clockwork Rift Steampunk mysteries, and the Tales of Unification urban fantasy stories, plus many more. You can find all of her work on MDR Publishing's website at www.MDR-Publishing.com.

Book preview

The Street of the Phoenix

The Street of the Phoenix

A Drath SF Short Story

Meyari McFarland

MDR Publishing

Contents

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5.

Other Drath Books by Meyari McFarland:

Author's Note: Cradle of the Day

1. Eager Eyes

2. Quiet Tongues

Afterword

Author Bio

Special Offer

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Meyari McFarland shows her mastery in this first omnibus collection of her short fiction. Twenty-five amazing stories, all with queer characters going on adventures, solving mysteries, and falling in love are here in the first Rainbow Collection.

And now you can get this massive collection of short queer fiction, all of it with the happy endings you love, for free!

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Other Drath Books by Meyari McFarland:

Clash of Lines

Joining of Lines

Consort of the Crystal Palace

Fragments of a Chain

Stranded With You

Reunited Hearts

A Simple Life

Cradle of the Day

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You can find these and many other books at www.MDR-Publishing.com. We are a small independent publisher focusing on LGBT content. Please sign up for our mailing list to get regular updates on the latest preorders and new releases and a free ebook!

Copyright ©2019 by Mary Raichle

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Print ISBN: 978-1-64309-039-9

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Cover image

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ID 85957479 © Luca Oleastri | Dreamstime.com

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be emailed to [e-mail].

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This book is also available in TPB format from all major retailers.

Created with Vellum Created with Vellum

This story is dedicated to Anne McCaffery and my best friend Kay, for completely different reasons.

1.

The ship bot trundled along ahead of Chinoso. Nice solid magnetic tread and sturdy grasper arms attached to its boxy body. Looked like it had real good motors in there, well able to handle any size of load as long as it could get a grip on things. Problem that Chinoso saw was that it didn't matter how strong you were when your load was a hundred times bigger than you were. Even tugs needed to be able to get some form of leverage to be effective.

The antigrav pad it'd been sent to deliver was huge. Box on it was huge, too. Easily twenty times bigger than the bot, to the point where Chinoso hadn't bothered trying to squeeze around the bot and its load. Weren't enough centimeters between the wall and the load for her to make it.

Little thing seemed way too small to push a freight pad that big but either it was stronger'n it looked or the pad was lighter because it didn't have a speck of trouble until they hit the left turn back towards the Cargo Bay P. Then the pad kept on going straight when the bot tried to turn it left.

Whoop, let me help, kiddo, Chinoso said as she ran over and grabbed the tail end of the pad.

Kind of nice to be able to help. Her last job inspecting repairs before ships left port had required that she do nothing at all to help or encourage anyone. Had to be one hundred percent impartial in all ways, like that was a possibility for a human. Even bots had trouble being truly impartial. They were programed by humans, after all.

Handles were a bit loose, giving her a mushy grip on the thing. That'd need to be fixed. Soon. Antigrav or not, the pad was unwieldly as all hell even if the handles were actually securely attached. Eight feet long and four wide, good six high, the thing was big as a life pod if not half so ugly. The ship bot beeped at her, a long, scolding whine of a beep that Chinoso couldn't interpret yet given that she'd only just started on the ship today.

Can't understand you yet, kiddo, Chinoso said. Sorry. They've not linked me into the comm systems. But I'd hate for it or you to be damaged when I could just help a little. Let me steady the back. You can zip around the side and push against it.

The ship bot's camera zoomed in on her face just like it was squinting at her. Cute. Chinoso grinned and shrugged, making her rainbow box braids shift on her shoulders. The bot booped-whoop-chittered at her, whatever that meant, and then did as Chinoso had suggested.

Together they got the pad around the corner,

Reviews for The Street of the Phoenix

[DaisyTeragram · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this story. It's 50 pages and the rest is an excerpt of another story. The characters and plot are interesting. I liked the lesbian romance aspect. There were a few editing errors, but the writing is good; the author has a unique style.