#5 from Baen in the award-winning Liaden Universe® saga. Space ships, action, adventure—all tied together with a strong dollop of romance and intrigue.

First Class courier pilot Theo Waitley was already known as a nexus of violence—and then she inherited the precarious captaincy of a mysterious self-aware ship. Now she has a trade route to run for Clan Korval while she convinces the near mythic ghost ship Bechimo—and herself—that she wants to commit herself as the human side to their immensely powerful symbiosis. While her former lover battles a nano-virus that's eating him alive, Theo is challenged to rescue hundreds of stranded pilots and crewmen from an explosive situation in near orbit around a suddenly hostile planet. Lovers, enemies, an ex-roomie, and a jealous spaceship are all in peril as Theo wields power that no one in the universe is sure of, especially her.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).