There are 'nice' jobs that come my way, and there are profitable jobs that come my way. Now, these things do, on occasion, come along inside each other's orbits - but it's more of a cometary sort of thing, if you take my meaning.Avrel Dansby is troubled.He knew, going in, that the life of a smuggler...

Jon Bartlett's path is clear before him: finish his last year of schooling, then off on the family's ships to learn the intricacies of interstellar trade. But a message of tragedy at home comes for him, and his expected life is flung far out of reach and he's cast into a role he never wanted.