C.J. CHERRYH
His name was Sandor and he was the owner and entire crew of a tramp star-freighter that flew the Union planets under false papers and fake names.
Her name was Allison and she was a proud but junior member of the powerful family whose mighty starship, Dublin Again, was the true queen of the spaceways.
They met at Viking Station, she seeking a night's dalliance, he desperately in search of a spacer assistant.
Their fateful meeting was to lead to a record-breaking race to Downbelow Station, thereby catching the calculating eye of the grim commander of the Alliance battlecraft, Norway, and a terrifying showdown at a deadly destination off the cosmic charts.
A supercharged "space opera" by the award-winning author of THE FADED SUN and the "Morgaine" novels.