"She's not dead. She's owned."

Three years ago, Kerstin Ahlers was one of the best hackers in known space. She siphoned twelve million Geld from a Galactic Federation black budget repository before they caught her. Now she is Asset Nightfall, a coerced operative wearing a technological leash she cannot remove. The AI surveillance device fused to her nervous system monitors her thoughts, tracks her location, and reports to handlers who consider her inventory with a pulse.

Her new mission: infiltrate a space station on the edge of Andrasian territory and steal the quantum encryption protocols their military is developing. Her way in: her own cousin, a security specialist inside the target facility. The Federation chose her because family trust opens doors that tradecraft cannot.

But Nova Tangier Station holds more than military secrets. The Andrasian Republik's genetic purity laws have already destroyed her cousin's family, taking his daughter and leaving wounds that turned quiet compliance into careful planning. A criminal syndicate is laundering money through the same systems Kerstin has come to crack, with ties reaching back into the empire that owns her. Fellow operatives shadow her every move. And the AI on her wrist has started developing ambitions its creators never programmed.

Ten days. A collapsing timeline. A smuggler with a pilot and a price. And a choice between betrayal and something Kerstin stopped believing existed: freedom.

Asset Nightfall: Digital Rebellion is a science fiction noir Rogue Transmission Novella in the Wild Frontier Chronicles. A complete standalone. No prior reading required.

For readers of Martha Wells's Murderbot Diaries, Richard K. Morgan's Altered Carbon, and anyone who wants their space opera with sharp edges and a beating heart.