Why won't the Bugs leave them alone? All Ron, Gus and Tik wanted to do was to get back to their home planets to see their families. They wouldn't mind turning a profit on some trades along the way but when people threaten their friends and trade, they have a tendency to forget trading while they take care of the problem. It seemed like every time they turned around, the Bugs or some of their allies were threatening them or their friends. Maybe hitting them really hard one time, right where it hurt, would make them change their mind. That action took them to "The Key." Now, what do they do...

Star traders Ron, Gus and Tik now reign over the Alcantaran Key. Controlling a wealth of advanced technology far beyond most people's imagination, they are ready to put it to work trading. But the Bugs are at it again, threatening Earth and Vesta IV. The trio has had enough. It is time to teach aggressors that messing with their planets comes with dire consequences.

John just wanted to be a cowboy on his buddy's ranch and go on a cattle drive. When the terrible winter of 1886 hit and Road Trotters from No Man's Land threatened the ranch, John's skill with a gun was called into action again. Now he was forced to make a cattle drive to save the ranch. A gun might not be enough to get the cattle back home though. He might need more than a little luck.

Trust. Joyce McCloud has reason not to trust her own judgment or men. Look at the losers she's hooked up with in the past. She has the bruises and broken bones to prove it. The last loser, who was so polished in public, politically and powerfully connected, seemed so wonderful - until he tried to rape Katie her fifteen year old daughter. Now her daughter doesn't trust her Mom's judgment either. Trust. Misplaced again as the two women watch a conniving truck driver murdered in cold blood. His only crime they could see was that he'd helped them escape from the pedophile. Trust. Katie's sure her...

Josh Gunn and his partners trailed the sex-slavers to Vadir, a planet on the edge of nowhere. While searching for the villains, a local gangster steps between the trio and their quarry. The delayed hunters struggle to overcome this obstacle to hunt down their target. Failure means thousands of sex-slaves could be lost forever. One misstep though could mean their lives.

The trap is in place to catch the head of the sex slavers, but it moves into action before Josh Gunn and his partners are ready. Now they are playing catch up to save thousands of slaves and capture the deadly head of the slaver ring. Old friends step in to help but even they may not be enough, especially when the Charter Navy steps in the middle of the trap.

Josh Gunn and his partners locate and retrieve items or people all over the universe. Not many challenges defied them for long. But getting a spaceship load of sex slaves back to their own planets or to a new home is proving to be tougher than they ever dreamed. Everything they do is draining more of their money and resources. A chance to earn twenty million credits for retrieving some artifacts seems simple enough but reality proves otherwise. The people lurking in the sidelines could disrupt all of their best laid plans.