Chilling Effect

Captain Eva Innocente runs La Sirena Negra, a small ship that hauls minor cargo around the galaxy for very little money. Her sister Mari has been kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that keeps its hostages in cryostasis. The ransom is steep, and the only way Eva can raise it is by taking on a string of unpleasant and dangerous missions.

The pressure comes from every side. Her hold is full of psychic cats. An emperor with a fish face and an amorous streak wants her dead after she turned down his advances. Her engineer is kind to her, and Eva is not coping well with the feelings that follow.

She copes by lying, and the more the situation deteriorates, the more she lies. Her crew, who have become her found family, start to grow suspicious, and their trust in her is tested. To get Mari back, Eva is ready to put the crew, the ship and the life she has built on the ruins of her past misdeeds at risk.

This is a comic space opera with an offbeat, irreverent tone. It pokes fun at pop culture and video games, and it fills its galaxy with strange life forms, odd artifacts and a foul-mouthed captain at the helm. Once the dominoes begin to fall and Eva sees that the real threat is larger than she thought, she has to choose between staying cool and burning everything down.