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Aboard the Prominence, a spaceship abbey filled with holy treasures, is a 14-year-old novice-monk. But Bart is more interested in flying the old ship than worshipping the sun.

When the Prominence goes to the aid of an unidentifiable spacecraft, it’s Bart who realises the danger of stopping. For not only are the passengers space-pirates, but the Prominence’s engines then fail. Temperatures soar as monks and pirates alike drift closer to the sun.

It’s up to Bart to risk everything or it’s meltdown.

An out-of-this-world, adventure from the extraordinary imagination of Baboon author David Jones. Meltdown is filled with zero-gravity action, memorable characters and mounting suspense as the end of hope draws near.

Bart waited in the cockpit, drenched in light. The ball of the Sun glittered darkly through the shaded windows. Already it was several times its size in Earthly skies, and he felt its fierce heat on his face and hands. He checked his watch again. Gary was half an hour late for their scheduled course correction. When he finally stumbled in, Bart could almost see his head throbbing from the hangover. He could only imagine what it felt like.

“Computer, shade,” Gary muttered.

“The windows are already partially shaded,” said the computer.

“More shade, then,” said Gary.

A black disc appeared on the cockpit window. It flowed over the glass, shading Gary’s eyes as he moved about the room.

“Good morning,” said Bart.

“I’ll just have to take your word on that,” said Gary.

“Oh, it’s a beautiful day. The Sun is out …” Bart flipped through a stack of small laminated cards held to the console by binder rings. “The birds are—”

“—suffocating. We’re in space.”

At least being hung over hadn’t killed Gary’s sense of humour. “All right. Let’s get this show on the road.”

They started the pre-burn checklist. Gary seemed particularly careful – perhaps because he was in violation of regulations by consuming alcohol within twenty-four hours of a scheduled manoeuvre. Where Gary found tedium in the repetition, Bart took comfort.

They were changing the course of a vessel weighing more than 80,000 tonnes. Knowing that there was a right way to do it, and that somebody had written it all down, took some of the weight from his shoulders. Before the last phase of the countdown, Gary paused and opened the intercom to the entire ship.

“Your attention, please: this is your Captain speaking. In about three minutes, we will be executing final course corrections for our return to standard solar orbit, which will take us back to Earth. This will be a slow burn lasting approximately twelve minutes. Nevertheless, please secure all loose items as we will be changing direction. Thank you for your cooperation.”

He cut off the microphone before turning to Bart. “I want to use tanks three and six.”

“Okay, so … that’s not standard, is it?”

“No, it’s not. You want to know why?”

“Why?”

“Tanks four and five are almost dry. We won’t make it more than twenty seconds into our burn before they’re completely empty, and we don’t want to switch tanks in the middle of a burn. I mean, we could do it, but it’s just sloppy practice.”

“Okay,” said Bart, touching a screen on the console. “Switching to tanks three and six. Oxidant at thirty thousand kilopascals.” He flipped a few more switches. “Fuel at twenty-nine point five.”

“Good,” said Gary. “On my mark: six … five …”

Bart reached over and flipped a last switch on Gary’s side of the instrument console while Gary continued his countdown.

“Thank you … three … two … one, injectors … zero …”

Bart flipped up the protective cover, punched the ignition button, and … nothing. The Prominence was one of the largest vessels in space, and even under the thrust of its massive engines it would take a moment to feel the monastery accelerate. But the rumble of the rockets should have been immediate.

Instead, there was only silence.