Channok's wedding to Peer, a fearless space-rat bride with a talent for trouble, is barely underway when police boats from Irrek force the couple into flight. Worse, Channok learns he has been drawn into one of Santis's intricate schemes, with the missing Crown Jewels of Irrek and Channok's hoped-for respectable future tangled together before the celebration is even over. Two months later, aboard the Asteroid, the newlyweds spot a vast Dardrean war-fleet and then the crippled Ra-Twelve, a drifting ship that seems to have lost its crew to something far more sinister than battle. What begins as salvage soon turns to dread as they board the Ra-Twelve and find a vessel abandoned in panic, its controls set to full emergency, its cabins marked by wealth, violence, and terror. Channok discovers a lich, a deadly spaceborne organism, and realizes the disaster may have begun with a hidden cargo of dangerous antibiotic material. Even after disinfecting the ship and burying the dead, the mystery deepens with a wall-safe, a possible taboo weapon, and the eerie suspicion that something aboard is still not finished with them. Wry banter, romance, and escalating peril drive this tense, funny space adventure toward Old Nameless and whatever waits there. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.
