Dirriken Friedel never meant to be a traitor. He used his aristocratic ties to save his men, only to see them slaughtered anyway—and now their families want his blood. Locked in prison, he waits for the assassin who will finish the job.
When a band of off-duty marines busts him out, Dirk finds himself with a second chance and the worst crew in the galaxy: a bitter ex-officer, a gene-altered zealot, a runaway ingenue, a sham engineer, and a femme fatale with a body count. Together they’ve got a junker ship, a bottle of bad liquor, and a fanatical imperial tribune hunting them across the stars.
To survive, Dirk must keep his misfit crew alive long enough to decide if he’s worth redemption—or just easier dead.
