Axiom's End (Noumena, #1)

by Lindsay Ellis

The corpse stayed corpselike.

Black olives. The answer to the eternal quandary of what if one were to combine snails and old tires into a foodstuff. The only way the creature could have punished her more brutally was if it had forced celery on her.

Cora gulped down the last bit of pancake, already starting to ache from having very rapidly eaten the whole plate. The whole plate.

“So in that case, it’s fair to wonder why a bunch of religious zealots didn’t immediately declare a group of extraterrestrials demons and stone them to death.”

Luciana sighed and looked apologetically at Cora. “Better call Sol.”