Description:

Simeon was a shell-person - the brain who ran Space Station SSS-900, on the fringes of human space. But things hadn't been going too well lately, and he was more than a little discontented. Though normally he enjoyed his work, these days it seemed boring. To make matters worse, his long-time partner had just retired and he was having a hard time adjusting to his newly assigned brawn - a strong-willed woman named Channa Hap, who seemed to feel it her duty to keep him in line. As if a shell-person needed that kind of mothering. Still, the "city" did offer some amusements. For one thing, linked to the station's computer as he was, Simeon could enjoy intricate wargames in ways no softperson could appreciate. There was also the child called Joat, for Jack-of-all-Trades, who was hiding in the station's maintenance passages, and whose mechanical genius even Simeon found impressive. But Channa's attitude, wargames and even Joat's whereabouts soon become minor concerns, and boredom was replaced by keen interest when heavyworlder space pirates - the brutal Kolnari - attacked the nearby colony planet, Bethel. A small band of settlers managed to escape, but they pushed their converted colony ship far beyond its capabilities. Since they had been heading for the Space Station, Simeon was able to rescue them - but the consequences were serious. By aiding the refugees, Simeon had unwittingly issued the Kolnari an invitation for trouble. They weren't about to give up their quarry, they weren't intimidated by the Station's armaments, and invasion was, for them, a savage art. So Simeon had to devise a defensive strategy - a challenge more exciting in real life than anything his computer-simulated wargames had to offer.