Where the Purple Grass Grows — J.A. Marlow

The eighteenth die-of-boredom back-world in the last three months.

Reporter Steve Gortney hates his new assignment of following a senator on a re-election tour. The arrival of a pirate spaceship at the Vorstogen space-elevator changes that viewpoint, and maybe the trajectory of his failing career. The thrill soon fades when he finds his own life in danger from a secret the pirates are willing to kill to keep hidden.

Meanwhile, the space-elevator hides a few deadly secrets of its own...

A science fiction novelette.