The Spore Logs of Killar-qa

Maca-uay patches up the broken and the careless in the company town of Killar-qa, an extraction settlement where the air filters log perfect air quality even when the miners cough black grit. She is a field medic who loses every fistfight but never loses a patient. When a supervisor is pulled from Sector Four with injuries that the company’s official shift logs classify as a simple fall, Maca recognizes the distinct tearing pattern of a spore-bore that was officially eradicated three years ago.

The company insists the sector is safe. The town’s continued operation—and Maca’s only safe harbor from the debts of her past—depends on the town’s high safety ratings remaining spotless. But as more workers arrive at her makeshift infirmary with "accidental" injuries that don't match the reports, Maca realizes the safety records aren't just falsified; they are covering up a quiet, spreading contamination. She has to find out what Killar-qa is actually digging into before the quarantine protocols lock the town down forever—without alerting the overseers that the town's most disposable medic knows they are all living on top of an active bio-hazard.