the Earth trade, and the small ship would be an ideal conduit. Sandy swallows his pride and accepts the generous deal. As it turns out, Allison has an ulterior motive. She is a junior officer in charge of her own small group within the much larger group in command of Dublin Again, but many, many years stand between her and a "posted" position with real responsibility. By transferring with her crew to the smaller ship, she can satisfy her ambition immediately. Things seem to be going well for once. Then Sandy is called in to meet the head of the Alliance military, the notorious Signy Mallory, who had once been one of the renegade Mazian's captains. She gives him a sealed priority military cargo to be delivered to stations being reopened Earthward. The trip is tense; Sandy and his new crew do not trust each other. He refuses to release the computer safeguards that have protected him in the past, preferring to size up the Reillys first. Curran, Allison's second in command, tries to force him to give up the security codes, but Sandy refuses to back down and a fight breaks out. The result is an ugly, festering stalemate. When they arrive at the Venture star system, they are intercepted and boarded by Mazianni from the warship Australia. Sandy orders his crew to hide, while he and Curran try to talk their way out. He is taken to Tom Edger, Mazian's senior captain. Sandy offers to work for him and is then told that his cargo is worthless scrap. Mallory had used him as bait to flush out her enemy. Edger decides he might have a use for Sandy, but Curran is taken away. Fighting to get his crewman back, both Sandy and Curran are shot and left for dead as the Mazianni begin to evacuate. At that moment, Mallory's Norway, the armed Alliance superfreighter Finity's End, and Dublin Again rush in to engage the fleeing Edger (although he gets away) and free the station. Sandy and Curran survive the battle. When the dust settles, Mallory clears Sandy's name and title to his ship in return for having put him in mortal danger. His crew now trust him wholeheartedly and Sandy has the nucleus he needs to revive the Kreja family, returning his ship to its original name, Le Cygne. Main characters Merchanter freighter Le Cygne (also known as