<p>Captain Evgeny Lerner was already struggling to maintain his mastery of the pirate starship <em>Scape Grace</em> and her crew of pan-galactic rogues.&nbsp; He just wanted to guide her toward profit and away from disaster, by navigating the shrinking shadows of an expanding galactic Collective.&nbsp; Stuck with a giant, violent, authoritarian first mate; a half-computer communications officer; a xenophobic ship&#39;s doctor; a psychotic, saurian&nbsp;weapons officer; a genetically engineered engineer torn from his collectivist species; and a combat crew culled from the worst refuse of two systems,&nbsp;Captain Lerner&nbsp;faced plenty of challenges.&nbsp; But when a raid went wrong and <em>Scape Grace</em> was caught defenseless, they found themselves pressed into service escorting a lost ship from an unknown alien race.&nbsp; The&nbsp;unique ship with an untranslatable name proved that even in an increasingly civilized galaxy, surrounded by some of its oddest renegades, a weary ship&#39;s captain could still be surprised by something new.</p>