Star Raider

His name was Lord Acton. He was from Earth, and he was rich, arrogant and superlatively brilliant. He had two Lithian bodyguards—giant blue-skinned savages—and he needed a spaceship with a captain willing to go to the galactic rim. Centurion Tanner was about as down on his luck as a man could be. The space station’s tax police had impounded his ship. His navigator had Rigellian Fever, running up exorbitant medical costs, and bounty hunters working for Coalition Intelligence were waiting to take him. Tanner agreed to Lord Acton’s terms. What other choice did he have? But that’s when things really turned nasty, beginning with a missile attack a billion kilometers before they could enter hyperspace. Tanner wanted out once he learned that he and his crew had been hired to help stop an interstellar plot of genocidal magnitude. By then it was too late. He hated Acton but reluctantly admired the man’s gall. Now, Tanner would have to use everything he’d ever learned to save himself, his crew and ship and possibly the rest of the human race.