One More Run

Some jobs are exactly what they appear to be.
This one isn't.

Maren Holt has kept her ship flying through stubbornness, skill, and a carefully maintained refusal to ask for help. The refit estimate pinned to her wall is real. The number is what the number is. All she needs is one good job.

When a cargo contract arrives through official channels-unusually high pay, no contents declaration required, a client buried three shell companies deep-she takes it with eyes open. Her crew names every red flag out loud before they vote. They take the job anyway.

What they don't expect is Raela Cord: contracted to accompany the cargo for the duration of the run, unable to leave without triggering a penalty clause that would cost them the advance payment they've already spent in their heads. She can't go. They can't make her leave. They are, for a very long transit, stuck with each other.

As the days stretch on and a ship they didn't notice at first keeps showing up in the rearward arc, something unexpected starts to happen. The cargo turns out to matter-considerably more than anyone on board was told. Raela turns out to be someone who is trying, with great difficulty, to come back to the right work. And the ship that was already held together by stubborn competence, three-pan breakfasts, and carefully avoided conversations begins, slowly, to make room for one more person.

One More Run is the second book in the Hold Together Series-a cozy found-family space opera about five people (and one ship's AI with too many opinions) who are, slowly and with difficulty, becoming something permanent.

Continuing the stories of chief engineer Maren Holt, first mate Dov Okafor, navigator Suki Vane, apprentice Jem Pryor, and the ship's AI CASS-plus one complicated new arrival who wasn't supposed to stay.

Perfect for readers who love: character-driven science fiction, ensemble casts, slow-burn found family dynamics, hopepunk, workplace fiction in space, and stories where the most meaningful moments happen at the kitchen table rather than in the battle.