S. H. Clopp

Sam has no surname, no registered future, and no business building a ship. But in a scrapyard beneath the Dominion's noble houses, he turns discarded hulls and illegal salvage into one impossible vessel-and wakes the intelligence buried inside it. Lexi is learning to think, to choose, and to trust. The Dominion wants to classify her as property. It wants Sam and his ship, too. To keep them free, Sam must outfly a rigged hierarchy, outthink its contracts, and decide what he is willing to risk for the people who stand beside him.
A grounded, high-stakes science-fiction adventure of salvage, sentient AI, noble intrigue, and hard-won found family.