Refugees on Urloon

When Svana takes a position as a supply clerk with the Adra Starforce Academy, she didn't expect to go into space on a vessel. A space battle formed, and her ship was for student observers. They didn't expect to be hit by plasma beams and flung through an anomaly into deep space. Rescued from sure death in the void, Svana finds herself a refugee for the second time in her life. But the lovely, friendly, remote waterworld of Urloon is nothing like the crowded industrial world she fled to as a young woman, with her one surviving child.

Highly decorated Captain Liam Rangell became her friend during the long days lost in space, the only adult survivors on a ship of frightened students. He has decided on an adaption offered by Urloon, to gain gills, fins and other adaptions. Svana chose the other option, a farming co-op on land, hoping to return to her grown daughter someday. Their time of daily companionship is coming to an end.

The spring Moonfest, a fertility celebration fueled by the pheromones of the chandolay, an alien water animal, seems too alien for her. Something for young people. But she would like to see the conjunction of moons, the aurora lights, and the chandolay dance. Her new friend Elaine, urges her to come to the Moonfest. "The Urloon have a saying. 'Some mistakes are too precious to miss.'"

This is an lengthened version of the original novelette. Same romance!

This romance contains alien water beasts, a ship lost in space, a fertility festival, aurora lights, conjunction of moons, and a weary older couple from completely different tiers of society desiring a new life. This is an adult romance.