Fallen Empire: Adverse Event (Kindle Worlds)

Three years before the events of Star Nomad, Dr. Esther Chaikin finds herself reassigned from a comfortable Perun hospital to a prisoner-of-war station in the middle of nowhere. She's not sure if the Empire sent her out because someone realized she was hiding Starseer abilities or if the chocolate she shipped to her cousin's Alliance-friendly wife was a bad idea. Either way, she’s worried.

But more immediate concerns soon distract her: The mysterious illness she was contracted to treat is worse than it was made out to be. The man in solitary confinement who is supposedly a dangerously contagious Alliance assassin may not even be sick.. And finally, Esther is positive the chief medic is hiding something from her.

If she can’t get to the bottom of everything, she may never make it back to Perun. Or anywhere else.