Series: The Beast's Burden Chronicles #1
Publication date: February 22nd, 2026
Synopsis:
Trapped aboard a living spacecraft hidden above her hometown, a teenage outcast must wage a one-girl war against ruthless alien mercenaries to save her best friend before the ship jumps into deep space.
A SHIP FULL OF ALIENS TOOK HER BEST FRIEND, THEY SHOULD'VE LEFT HER ON EARTH.
Abigail Ashby was raised to be a weapon by a dad convinced the world was on the brink of collapse. Then, inexplicably, he forced her into early retirement--aka high school.
These days, Abigail's only battle is defending Harris, her outcast best friend who swears his parents were abducted by aliens. She's secretly sure he's delusional--right up until his bedroom explodes in amethyst light.
They wake up aboard the Beast's Burden, an interstellar warship lurking above their town. Its leader, a sadistic warlord, seizes Harris as his prize, while Abigail slips away in the chaos--overlooked, underestimated.
Until she kills an alien to survive.
Now, hunted through the ship's living corridors, Abigail must decide: retreat into the shadows, or unleash the lethal training she buried to wage a one-girl war and save everything she's ever known... Because Harris isn't just a hostage. He's the trigger for humanity's extinction.
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"Wait-- I'm sorry. Abigail, I didn't mean that. Please don't go."
Abigail froze in her tracks, but it had nothing to do with Harris's plea. An unearthly shriek had erupted, ricocheting endlessly around the room, and all the warmth had instantly drained from her body.
"What is that?" she asked, ice surging through her veins.
Harris looked like he had seen a ghost. "I have no idea, but it's coming from--"
With a deafening crack, four dark spheres shot out from underneath the bed and slammed into the corners of the room. Abigail watched, petrified, as the spheres oozed apart, spreading to cover the walls in a thick layer of disgusting sludge.
"You're seeing this, right?" she said, voice trembling.
Harris nodded slowly, and Miss Biscuits started howling.
The ghastly sound reached a new ear-piercing level as the sludge began crackling with unstable amethyst purple energy.
"We need to get out of here!" Abigail shouted. She dashed for the window, but the light glittering across its surface flared violently in response, and she recoiled, backing away slowly.
The shriek was becoming unbearable. Abigail could hardly hear herself think, let alone process what was happening.
"This way!" shouted Harris as he lunged for the bedroom door, but the pulsing glow surrounding the handle suddenly sparked, jumping eagerly to his outstretched hand.
Amethyst purple light rippled through Harris's entire body, shining beneath his skin. Abigail watched in horror as an unnatural smile slowly twisted across his face.
"Harris?" she said cautiously.
Harris's head swiveled toward Abigail and his morbid grin twisted into fear. The amethyst purple light erupted out of his skin, contorting him backwards into a jagged arch. His body was suddenly blasted onto the ceiling, held there for a moment by an invisible force before dropping sharply to the ground, the impact kicking up a cloud of dust from the hardwood.
"Harris!" Abigail screamed, rushing to his motionless body. This was a nightmare. Everywhere she looked the amethyst purple light was encroaching--over the ceiling, across the walls, and covering the floor, inching right for them. Abigail scrambled to grab Harris under his arms and used every ounce of her strength to drag him onto the bed, only just avoiding the energy as it engulfed the remainder of the room's surfaces.
"Harris, wake up!" she shouted as she checked for a pulse.
"Abby!?" came a muffled cry.
She strained to see Taylor pounding outside the window, an uncharacteristically horrified expression on his face through the amethyst-colored glare. He took a step back and then charged, but the barrier flared the moment his shoulder made contact, and he was repelled away in a shower of shattered glass.
Abigail's eyes darted around the room, her fear mounting as the shrieking hit yet another plateau. Blood pounded in her ears. "Harris, wake up. Please wake up!" she pleaded, her voice barely audible over the howling of Miss Biscuits and everything else.
The sludgy spheres had re-formed in the corners of whatever was happening--what was happening?!--perhaps they could be shut down somehow... But how? Abigail grabbed Harris's hand, hopelessly begging him to wake up, and her fingers made contact with a ripple of raised skin--the scar.
Abigail's gaze snapped to the samurai sword hanging on the wall. Scrambling to her feet, she ripped it from its mount and unsheathed it. The gleaming blade appeared as sharp as it had all those years ago.
"Abby! Abby! What are you doing?!" Taylor's voice cut through the chaos. He was back on his feet just outside the shattered window. He was holding up a small metallic object that Abigail couldn't quite make out through the amethyst refraction. She didn't have time for this. The high-pitched shriek was growing more and more deafening, the amethyst-colored light burning ever more severely. Instinctively, she knew it was now or never. She had to disrupt whatever was happening.
She frantically scanned the spheres, her entire body shaking. Though she had no clue this would work, the one in the corner by the door seemed like her best shot. "You can do this," she said to herself, but she didn't remotely believe it. Gathering all her strength, she sprinted towards the edge of the bed, leaping into the air with the hilt held firmly in her grasp. With a loud clang, the sword sliced through the sphere, miraculously penetrating the energy barrier and lodging in the wall.
As gravity pulled Abigail toward the floor, time seemed to slow, and she watched the damaged sphere start to skitter in and out of reality, spewing sparks in all directions like it was about to explode. The blinding amethyst light and eardrum-bursting shriek reached their crescendos just before Abigail hit the ground.
She felt a surge of pure agony, and then, there was nothing.
J.S. ASH has spent over a decade working in media at one of the largest tech companies in the world, though his true love remains storytelling. His creative DNA was forged in the 90s--a blend of blockbuster action cinema, console gaming, and the high-stakes melodrama of the era's teen soaps. He lives with his wife and daughter, who serve as the primary inspiration for the resilient, protective heroines at the heart of his stories.
