Explore Familial Rivalry and Loyalty with An Excerpt from 'Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms' Prose Novel

New York Times best-selling author Mackenzi Lee returns with the second young adult novel in her hit series exploring the untapped potential and duality of heroism within the Marvel Universe for Marvel Press.

In Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms, available everywhere books are sold on June 1, Lee navigates the volatile-as-ever relationship between Thanos' teenage adopted sisters Gamora and Nebula. Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms follows the first book in the series, Loki: Where Mischief Lies, which was an instant New York Times best-seller.

Gamora arrives on Torndune—a once-lush planet that has been strip-mined for the power source beneath its surface—with a mission: collect the heart of the planet. She doesn’t know who sent her, why they want it, or even what the heart of a planet looks like. But as the right hand and daughter of Thanos, and one of the galaxy’s most legendary warriors, her job is not to ask questions. Her job is to do what she’s told, no matter the cost.

What she doesn’t know is that her sister, Nebula, is in hot pursuit. Nebula has followed Gamora to Torndune in hopes of claiming the planet’s heart first and shaming her sister as vengeance for the part she played in Nebula losing her arm. While Gamora falls in with a group of miners attempting to overthrow the tyrannical mining corporation that controls their lives, Nebula allies herself with the Universal Church of Truth, whose missionaries wait on every street corner to recruit more followers and tithes for the Matriarch. Both sisters hope their alliance will give them access to one of the massive diggers capable of drilling to the center of the planet.

But they closer they get to the heart of the planet—and to each other—the closer they get to uncovering the truth of what brought them there and the role they may unknowingly be playing in a twisted competition with galactic consequences. A competition they can never win . . . unless they learn to trust each other. And trust is the biggest lie in the galaxy.

Read an excerpt of Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms, below, thanks to our friends over at Disney Publishing/Marvel Press!

Versa glanced sideways at her with a grin.

“Is there someone who wants you dead?” Gamora asked.

“They might, if they knew what I done with Doxey and Kid Blue. Even if you weren’t the Titan’s, it’s obvious you ain’t from here. You fight like someone taught you, but you’re wearing Starforce boots with illegal toe spikes that ain’t part of their standard-issue uniform.”

“How do you know what Kree military boots look like?” Gamora asked.

“My mother was Kree,” Versa replied. “She had a set of boots like that she handed down to me. The Crow wore through their soles years ago.”

“Your mother was a Kree soldier?” Gamora asked, unable to keep the surprise from her voice.

Versa tugged at the cord on her headset and the channel squeaked. “She was a Starforce officer, but she deserted to marry my mom and they came here to hide out. Back when Torndune was still green. They got caught up when the mining started, and by the time they realized they should get off-world, it were too late. Everyone was forced up into the tenement stations and charged taxes so high no one could afford to live good, even on those junk barges. But how lucky, the Mining Corps would let you pay off your debts with an indenture in their Crow mines. And the longer you work, the longer you live in the stations, the more your taxes add up, the more time gets added to your indenture to pay them off.”

She lunged suddenly over the dashboard and snatched a boxy microphone from the console. “Hey!” she shouted, and Gamora felt her headset vibrate. “Watch where you’re going! Yield to diggers, idiot!”

Gamora glanced out the windshield and realized the box mic was connected to a set of megaphones haphazardly stuck to the sides of the cab. Versa’s words had been broadcasted and directed at a med skiff that had pulled up just short of colliding with them. The driver made a rude hand gesture at them as they passed, which Versa returned. “You buckled in?” she asked, and Gamora nodded, though she tugged on her restraints clandestinely to be sure.

They were approaching one of the craters that pocked the canyon floor. A crew was assembled outside of it, waiting, but when they saw the Calamity coming, they put away their flasks of tea and pulled on vents and headlamps.

“Doc!” Versa barked into the mic again, and a figure dozing in the cab of a smaller vehicle parked ahead of them startled to attention. “We’re moving!”

Doc saluted, then fired up her own engine. It backfired, a gust of flame shooting out of the exhaust pipe. Versa clenched her teeth. “I told her to get that fixed.” Versa pulled up to the edge of one of the craters leading under the surface and gave two quick pulls on a cord overhead. The horn blared, and Doc pulled in her vehicle behind them. The miners stood in a loose assembly, waiting.

“Don’t puke in my cab,” Versa said, then grasped what Gamora had thought was a pedal but instead was some sort of lever, and slotted it into place. The rig tipped forward and down, the drum pointing into the cavern. The cab twisted, staying upright as they began descending into the darkness at an incline so steep it was almost vertical. Versa shifted again, and the rig started forward with a jolt. She switched on the headlights, and a flush swept over the jagged red-rock walls around them.

She glanced over at Gamora. “Any questions?”

All of them? Gamora thought. “So, you’re digging out this tunnel?”

Versa nodded. “We hit a Crow seam here a few months back, and the Corps have us following it down deep as it goes. I go in first and make the tunnel. Doc comes behind me in her bolter and secures it against the pressure so we don’t cave in.”

“What if it caves in on you—on us?” Gamora asked.

“I got hydraulics for once we start digging—the rig holds the tunnel together until Doc catches up.”

“And the miners behind you?”

“They come in, drill and place freeze pipes that get pumped with brine so the Crow don’t overheat and blow us to bits. Then the second team goes in for the ore. It gets slurried for transport, then taken to the refineries where they process it into fuel.”

“Sounds like a fun job,” Gamora replied.

Versa rubbed her hands against her steering wheel. The top was worn smooth from the repeated gesture.

“So, you got Doxey out.”

Gamora nodded. “If she did what I told her to do, she’s off-world by now.”

Versa sighed through clenched teeth. Gamora couldn’t tell if she was exasperated or relieved, and when she spoke her tone was just as opaque. “Doxey is a dumbass.” She paused, then added, “But I’m glad she got away. Even if it meant selling me out to do it.”

“She didn’t sell you out,” Gamora replied. “She trusted me.”

Versa snorted, but didn’t comment. “What is it that a daughter of Thanos wants on our dead planet that she needs a rig and a driver for? Your pa want to run the Corps out and stake his own claim?”

“It wasn’t Thanos who sent me,” Gamora replied. “I don’t know who I’m here for.”

“That don’t sound like a good idea.”

“It’s my job,” Gamora replied with a shrug. “I get things done.”

“Sexy.” The signal crackled, and Versa adjusted the knob. “What is it you’re here to do for this mysterious employer, then?”

“I’m supposed to collect something.”

“What kind of something?”

Gamora stared forward at the windshield, painted black as an oil spill by the darkness. “Something I can only get with a digger.”

“Ahhh.” Versa leaned back in her seat, loosening the restraint. “You only want me for my rig.”

“Are you surprised it wasn’t for your charming personality?” When Versa cocked her head in response, Gamora added, “You tried to hit me with a tire iron.”

“Extension drill.” Versa balanced one knee against the steering wheel, then used both free hands to push her hair into a pouf on the top of her head. “If I give you a ride to wherever it is you’re going in a digger, what’s in it for me?”

“I can help you burn the Mining Corps to the ground,” Gamora replied.

Something beeped on the dashboard, and Versa slammed on the brakes. Ahead of them, the tip of the drum had bumped the end of the dark red-rock tunnel. Versa stared at Gamora through the darkness, her eyes lit by the pale glow sloughing off the headlights. “Well,” she said, then pressed one of the knobs on the dash. There was a rumble, and the drum began to turn. “Giddyup.”

Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms will be available in trade paperback and ebook formats, available at bookshops and online retailers on June 1, 2021. Pre-order now!

Want to stay on top of everything in the Marvel Universe? Follow Marvel on social media—Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—and keep watching Marvel.com for more news!