Captain Evgeny Lerner was already struggling to maintain his mastery of the pirate starship Scape Grace and her crew of pan-galactic rogues.  He just wanted to guide her toward profit and away from disaster, by navigating the shrinking shadows of an expanding galactic Collective.  Stuck with a giant, violent, authoritarian first mate; a half-computer communications officer; a xenophobic ship's doctor; a psychotic, saurian weapons officer; a genetically engineered engineer torn from his collectivist species; and a combat crew culled from the worst refuse of two...