Stars for Sale

Book 1: The Gates of Venus He inherited the galaxy’s third-largest fortune. He’d rather be left alone. But when Venus starts whispering, Xander Gates becomes the only man who can afford to listen. As the last surviving heir of the Gates dynasty—a family wiped out by sabotage, sterility vectors, and suspicious sky-yacht accidents—Xander has one job: exist. As long as he’s alive, the family’s wealth, power, and legal control systems stay locked from everyone else. He was never supposed to lead. He was never supposed to matter. So when a ghost signal begins echoing from beneath the clouds of Venus—a dead world no one dares touch—Xander does the unthinkable: he volunteers. Not for glory. Not for profit. But because something in that signal feels like it’s waiting for him. Armed with a flagship that shipped like a pre-release video game—unfinished, bug-ridden, and already asking for a patch—and a repurposed mining AI with more attitude than safety protocols, Xander sets course for a planet full of ruins, silence, and secrets buried deeper than history. But the real story isn’t what he finds on Venus. It’s who he has to become to survive it.