Necessary Repairs: Iospary Stories, #2

By Skye Kilaen

Some things are harder to fix than others...

Violet hasn't seen her danger-loving business partner (and wife) Iona for months. They're better off with at least two planets between them. But now a client's offered them good money to retrieve an irreplaceable item from the man who stole it. Violet wants to say no, but their bank balance and ailing ship's engine say yes.

It's one day's work and they're both heavily armed. Surely they can get through one job together without breaking anything else?

~

A no-heat sapphic science fiction "marriage in trouble" romantic suspense short story that has an HFN with the promise of rebuilding.

Previously available via the author's newsletter. No major edits.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skye Kilaen
• Release date: Aug 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223271383

Skye Kilaen

Skye Kilaen writes queer romance, both contemporary and science fiction, that is sometimes about polyamorous relationships. Even her contemporaries are usually at least a bit geeky. After all, she does some of her writing in her local comic book shop.Skye started writing fiction in elementary school on a Smith Corona electric typewriter because that's all people had back in the early 1980s. She didn't realize she wanted to read and write romance until much later, when it finally dawned on her that she adored X-Men comics for the soap opera aspect as much as for the superpowers.She is bi, and she currently lives in Austin, Texas because of all the libraries and breakfast tacos.

Book preview

Necessary Repairs

Copyright © 2022 by Skye Kilaen.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form on by an electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without prior permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

If you downloaded this from a free site without signing up for the author’s newsletter, delete your pirated copy and get in touch with the author to work out a way for you to read it without piracy.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Cover Art © 2022 by Skye Kilaen.

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CONTENTS

About This Story

Content Warnings

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

More By This Author

Acknowledgments

About the Author

ABOUT THIS STORY

Violet hasn’t seen her danger-loving business partner (and wife) Iona for months. They’re better off with at least two planets between them. But now a client’s offered them good money to retrieve an irreplaceable item from the man who stole it. Violet wants to say no, but their bank balance and ailing ship’s engine say yes.

It’s one day’s work and they’re both heavily armed. Surely they can get through one job together without breaking anything else?

CONTENT WARNINGS

These are as spoiler-free as possible, but to the author it’s more important that folks who need content details can get them. If you don’t need them, just skip this!

Violence

Kidnapping

Gambling establishment

Alcohol

Mention of drugs

Child neglect

ONE

If Violet had been the one monitoring job offers, Meagher & Reardon Contract Enforcement would have replied to this one with the following:

Thank you for contacting M&R with this opportunity. After careful consideration, fuck off, no, find someone else.

Okay, maybe not those exact words. But why the hell take a job so far outside their usual sector? Why get involved in a totally different type of contract than they usually handled? Why take a job from a company that was so obviously a shell, without any idea where the money was coming from? M&R tracked down contract violators to retrieve objects, currency, or data—not people.

Worst of all, the job couldn’t be done with only one person. Violet had been scrupulous for eight months about keeping at least two planets between her and M&R’s co-owner at all times. Preferably three. Now, because of this motherfucking job, Violet was about ninety minutes away from seeing said partner again.

The last Violet had seen of Iona Meagher, the tall blonde was striding down the ship’s gangplank, a duffel over her shoulder and her left hand up in a rude gesture she’d learned on Pashaysen-4. Violet could recognize it very well from behind, thank you