My Orders Were Him
At the edge of inhabited space, the Astra Dominion stations its forgotten cadets and dangerous secrets aboard HALCYON-7, a drifting military training satellite locked in unstable orbit around the gas....
At the edge of inhabited space, the Astra Dominion stations its forgotten cadets and dangerous secrets aboard HALCYON-7, a drifting military training satellite locked in unstable orbit around the gas giant Erexis. The station is home to humans and non-human species alike—each bound by the same rigid command structure, yet ranked by histories of conquest, colonization, and control. Nyxar Kadeem is everything the Dominion rewards: disciplined, popular, and obedient enough to survive. As a non-binary, brown-skinned cadet, Nyxar has learned how to exist quietly within a system that measures worth through rank and restraint. Repeated disciplinary assignments have left them exposed to volatile space debris, ion storms, and chemical suppressants meant to prevent the emergence of rare abilities. Instead of suppressing anything, the exposure awakens something forbidden. Unknown to Nyxar, they possess the ability to manipulate gravity—an ancient power thought to be extinct, deliberately erased by the Dominion for being impossible to regulate. As Erexis’s warped gravity begins to respond to Nyxar’s presence, systems aboard HALCYON-7 falter, and command takes notice. Reassigned to oversee lower-tier cadets from multiple species, Nyxar encounters someone they were never meant to want—someone separated from them not only by rank, but by biology, culture, and law. In the Dominion, interspecies relationships are tolerated only when they are convenient, controlled, and politically useful. Anything else is considered a liability. What begins as guarded distance becomes an ache that neither of them can name. Guided by the sharp wit and bitter loyalty of their best friend Kaelis Arden, Nyxar must navigate a love that cannot be public, cannot be acted upon, and may never be fulfilled—while hiding a power that could collapse the very systems holding them apart. In a world governed by hierarchy, gravity, and silence, My Orders Were Him is a story about longing across impossible distances, love that defies command, and the quiet rebellion of choosing connection in a universe designed to keep bodies—and hearts—apart.