Disgraced Return of the Kap's Needle is a sci-fi horror novella, written by Renan Bernardo, and published by Dark Matter INK. A bleak and impactful tale of a spaceship forced to abort its colonization mission and return, and the decisions taken forced by necessity and greed, with a cast of morally grey characters pushed by the circumstances.

Life Support Manager Reva, officer of the Kap's Needle, acts as more than a tax collector, deciding who gets to breathe the limited oxygen that is needed for the return trip from a failed colonization mission; when Captain Horvarth launches an attempt to purge corruption, Reva is put between the stone and the wall: her own actions to protect her son have been questionable, and her only alternative to avoid the purge is joining forces with First Officer Torres to bring down the Captain, even if she was the responsible of the death of her daughter.

Bernardo's cast is one of the highlights of this novella: I would say that nobody is redeemable at the end, but you can still connect with Reva's struggles, especially after you discover the circumstances that brought her to this point. All of them are moved by their own interests, but in the end, they are mostly players that are trying to play the best with the cards given by the dealer in the distressing situation they are.

It deserves a special mention how space travel is portrayed in a different light than what is usually presented in the genre: Kap's Needle's destiny was decided in base of profitability, just considering the raw numbers and not the humans that were part of this travel. Bernardo puts a great amount of effort into portraying the bleakness and the dystopian nature of space travel, especially in terms of time frames and the limited space.
With this length, the pacing is really in the spot, keeping us in the hook for the entirety of the novella.

Disgraced Return of the Kap's Needle is an excellent mix of sci-fi and horror, a novella perfect if you are looking for an impactful bite of the genre; Bernardo is a voice to keep a tab on!