Teen sisters Grey and Rin Alexander are barely surviving as Mazdaar resisters in the North American Wildlife Preserve. Danger lurks around every sandstone rock, but the girls are resourceful and have become smugglers to make ends meet. They have no idea their most perilous mission is about to begin. Are these outlawed siblings up to the challenge? Under the Wire is a 10,000 word short story that takes place two years before the events of the novel Jupiter Winds.

Ever since Grey Alexander’s parents disappeared five years ago, she’s had one goal—to keep herself and her younger sister Rin alive. But surviving in the North American Wildlife Preserve isn’t easy, especially for the unconnected who can be shot on sight by border patrol robot drones. Through the guidance of their eccentric old neighbor Mrs. March, Grey and Rin get through by smuggling contraband into the Mazdaar government’s city zones. But when Grey is captured by the merciless General Evangeline Yurkutz and is forced to become bait for her mother and father, she questions everything she thought she knew about her life in the Preserve, her missing parents, and God. Is it possible Jupiter isn’t uninhabitable? And could this planet, whose sky swirls with orange vapors and where extinct-on-Earth creatures roam free, hold the key to reuniting her family? A fast-paced, character-driven space adventure that's reminiscent of science fiction's golden age. —KATHY TYERS, author of the Firebird series

Only a week ago Grey Alexander thought she and her sister were orphans. And like everyone else she believed Jupiter was uninhabitable. Now she’s standing on its surface, reunited with her mom and dad and on the brink of an interplanetary war. The government of Mazdaar is ruthlessly determined to claim Jupiter like they already have Earth, but Grey has joined her parents and Commander Fleur March in the Yien Dynasty’s resistance effort. Jupiter, where extinct animals roam free and seem to have an uncanny ability to communicate with her sister, is the last hope for the freedom of mankind. When Mazdaar unexpectedly descends with a fleet of their terrifying Triangle jets, Grey and her family barely escape with their lives. Cut off from reinforcements and traveling in a ship full of strangers, who can they trust? Surely not Dana Yurkutz, the traitorous prisoner who even though she inexplicably saved Grey’s life is still loyal to Mazdaar. Deception is their enemy’s most powerful weapon, and light and darkness soon blur on this new frontier. Nothing is as it first seems, and Grey and Dana must each choose sides before it’s too late.