S01E15 · Who We Were, Who We Are | Part One (Val)

This episode is the cinematic audiobook version of ORRIONA UNIVERSE | BOOK ONE | LEGACY | CHAPTER ELEVEN - PART ONE

Val wakes slowly, her body registering pain before her mind fully surfaces. Deep bruises from the hangar firefight throb across her shoulders and back—ducking behind crates, disarming a gravity mine under fire, bolting up the Orriona's ramp with plasma bolts sizzling past her head.

She's alive. The bruises are proof.

But now she's awake in Quarters One aboard a sentient starship. A private bathroom with an actually functioning shower. A workbench equipped with tools she's only seen in technical journals. Clothes without burn marks or worn edges.

It feels like someone else's life.

For fifty years, Val has survived on the frontier with Jotter at her side—her constant companion, the keeper of her family's legacy. Fifty years of taking the hardest jobs, the most desperate contracts, always choosing the path that led further from anything that looked like home.

She left behind expectations she couldn't meet. A mother who wanted her to design starships, not fix broken ones. A family legacy of advanced engineering theory when all she wanted was to work with her hands.

Now she stands in quarters that belong on an IMZ luxury cruiser, looking at a reflection she barely recognizes.

The engineer who improvises repairs with salvaged parts. The woman who's spent decades keeping broken things running against impossible odds. Someone who learned long ago that comfort like this isn't meant for people like her.

But the Orriona chose her. Gave her a workbench that's never known desperate fixes. Gave her tools without the scars of a thousand emergency repairs.

In eight hours, they reach the Axrathan derelict. A mission that will require everything she knows about bio-mechanical systems and ancient technology.

The question waiting in the mirror is simpler, and infinitely harder: Does she deserve to be here? And if the answer is yes—what does that mean for someone who's spent fifty years running from exactly this kind of belonging?

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Audio drama adaptation of Legacy with cinematic sound design
A queer-norm galaxy (no homophobia, no coming-out angst—just space adventures)
An engineer reckoning with who she was and who she's becoming
Fifty years of running finally coming to an end
Family legacy and hard-won skills
Grand, hopeful adventure with a massive heart

CONTENT NOTES: Reflection on past trauma, family estrangement, survivor's resolve

WHERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK: Currently in Kindle Unlimited. Visit https://www.orriona.com/ and subscribe to the newsletter for more information about wider availability and free content.

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Welcome aboard. The Driftline awaits.

#MMSciFi #gayaudiobook #MMSpaceOpera