Underestimation

A routine flight to Mars takes an unexpected turn when meteorologist James Gerris discovers Marilyn, a bold and bedraggled stowaway, hiding aboard his small, mostly automated spacecraft. Unable to return to Earth or put her ashore, Gerris must carry her along—even as she treats the dangerous journey with irreverent humor and refuses to explain what she is escaping.

Marilyn knows little about Mars, the ship, or the man at its controls, but she quickly recognizes Gerris’s uncertainty beneath his stern professionalism. He is headed toward a settlement where experimental weather control could reshape life on the planet, while she is determined to leave her old life behind at any cost. As the miles between Earth and Mars widen, their uneasy partnership becomes charged with attraction, suspicion, and the sense that neither of them understands what awaits them.