Eating Bugs

Book excerpt: Kimi's new job looks perfect--on paper. Great salary, private quarters in the Governor's mansion, lots of time off, and what amounts to a month's vacation to start with so she can get a feel for the planet and its people. As social secretary and translator for the Governor's wife, she'll be able to put her gift for diplomacy and her talent for languages to good use. But it turns out there are bugs in the program. The first bug is her boss, the Governor's supremely self-involved wife, who can't be bothered to learn a word of the native dialect. The second bug is, well, a bug. Or rather, a whole species of bugs, which are unfortunately and shockingly involved in a traditional festival celebration that Kimi can't get out of attending. And Kimi has this thing about bugs…