Margaret Ball: Disappearing Act

I've always loved impostor stories, and this is one with an extra twist. Maris escapes a death sentence from the leader of her thieves' gang on the space station by assuming the identity of a traveller who seems to have spaced herself: one Calandra Vissi.

Turns out, Calandra Vissi is not just any traveler - she's a Diplo, one of the Federation's super-agents, bionically enhanced with abilities and weapons far beyond the normal human range.

Turns out, Maris can't simply disappear when she reaches Vissi's destination planet of Kalapriya; the entire native population of Kalapriya is shorter and darker than she is, and the small colonial ruling class all know one another by name.

And there's no going back; the only way off Kalapriya is via the space station Maris just escaped from.

She'll just have to fake being a Diplo...and pretend to be trying to solve the problem Calandra Vissi was sent to solve...and take Vissi's planned route deep into the remote tribal territories of Kalapriya...and not get too involved with Gabrel, her escort, because he despises liars above all else, and she is acting out the greatest lie of her short life.

Guess which task is the hardest?