Aberration by Cathy McCrumb

Book 2 of Children of the Consortium

Summary:

Freedom Awaits, but the Consortium is Watching

When rogue drones threaten citizens and the ship’s crew falls ill, the Recorder answers their call for help, once again drawing scrutiny from the Consortium.

With no other option and under an Elder’s overbearing watch, she returns to Pallas Station where she nearly lost her life in the hope of finding something—anything—to save her friends and countless others. Her friends are determined to keep her safe, but for the Recorder, saving others comes first, no matter the cost.

Opening Line:

Solitude and its companion, apprehension, wrapped around me like a drone's trendrils. Air whispered through the vent over the holding-cell door, and quiet pressed through the walls to roar in my ears. Overhead, the red emergency light throbbed like the ship's visible heartbeat, and my imagination provided its sound--the faintest, gentlest click. I concentrated and uncurled my toes, pressing bare feet into the ribbed antistatic flooring, and the barely perceptible but steady rumble of the engines tickled my soles. 

CTV Agamemnon was not dead, whatever might have happened to her crew.