In the Earth's Shadow

The narrative follows Ferris, a solitary attendant who has maintained a remote orbital fuel station for six years, when company orders a replacement. An escaped convict, Siegal, boards and forces Ferris at gunpoint to siphon repulsion fuel, threatening to disable communications and let the station drift. A young replacement, Brooks, arrives and is overpowered; Siegal escapes in his cruiser with the stolen fuel while the station loses balance and begins an Earthward fall. Ferris improvises, boards the fleeing ship through a supply lock, and is taken along as he watches the only home he has known plummet away, confronting isolation, duty, and loss.