It was only one mistake Nessa made while young that had wrecked her entire engineering career: she’d slept with the wrong person. It could happen to anyone, she reminded herself over the years whenever it bobbed back into memory, sour in her belly. It had been her first internship out of schooling, and she’d slept with the undeniably attractive captain of the vessel she’d been stationed to.
She’d been young, full of dreams and excitement, and had snagged a position aboard a top-of-the-line, freshly commissioned science scout ship. She could only see her world expanding from there. Sleek ship, sleeker captain. God, the woman had been perfect. Nessa had gladly fallen into bed with her and under her spell. The captain’s fingers could trace star systems over her skin that she’d never even hea
