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Trading in Danger

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Overview

Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father's only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it's no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can't hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It's adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family's misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down. Expelled from the Academy in disgrace-and returning home to her humiliated family, a storm of high-profile media coverage, and the gaping void of her own future-Ky is ready to face the inevitable onslaught of anger, disappointment, even pity. But soon after opportunity's door slams shut, Ky finds herself with a ticket to ride- and a shot at redemption-as captain of a Vatta Transport ship.

Editorial Reviews

Noted for her strong heroines and interstellar naval adventures, Moon (Against the Odds) stumbles in the first of a new series featuring Kylara Vatta, whose "generous impulses" often get her into trouble. Ky, a favored daughter of a wealthy, interstellar shipping family, gets thrown ignominiously out of the Space Academy because she aided a fellow cadet who used her gullibility to dishonor the service. In consolation, her father gives her an antiquated cargo ship, the Glennys Jones, to command. He assumes she'll find a way to make enough profit to keep from having to junk the old tub. But after Ky figures out an angle on buying and selling some tractors, she inadvertently ends up running afoul of an interplanetary civil war. Following another generous impulse, Ky takes some stranded crewmen aboard. They return the favor by nearly getting her killed when mercenaries board her ship. Everyone, from her ship's seasoned crew to random strangers, annoyingly remarks on 21-year-old Kylara's youth and "exceptional" poise. With unusually slow pacing for a space adventure (lacking either the drama or the romance of opera), Moon presents several tableaux that are summarily dropped-such as polo that never gets played, a ship's model with secret instructions that Kylara refuses to decipher and an absentee boyfriend-any of which might have added some spice to this bland adventure. (Oct. 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Elizabeth Moon

Former Marine Elizabeth Moon is the author of many novels, including Command Decision, Engaging the Enemy, Marque and Reprisal, Trading in Danger, the Nebula Award winner The Speed of Dark, and Remnant Population, a Hugo Award finalist. After earning a degree in history from Rice University, Moon went on to obtain a degree in biology from the University of Texas, Austin. She lives in Florence, Texas.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Ballantine Books

Filesize

702.45 KB

Number of Pages

384

eBook ISBN

9780345469878

Excerpt from: Trading in Danger by Elizabeth Moon

Kylara Vatta came to attention in front of the Commandant ' s desk. One sheet of flatcopy lay in front of him, the print too small for her to read upside down. She had a bad feeling about this. On previous trips to the Commandant ' s office, she had been summoned by an icon popping up on her deskcomp. Those had all been benign visits, the result of exams passed in the top 5 percent, or prizes won, and the Commandant had greeted her with the most thawed of his several frosty expressions.

Today it had been ' Cadet Vatta to the Commandant ' s office, on the double, ' blaring out over the speaker right in the middle of her first class period, Veshpasir ' s lecture on the history of the first century pd. Veshpasir, no friend to shipping dynasties, had given her a nasty smirk before saying, ' Dismissed, Cadet Vatta. '

She had no idea what this was about. Or rather, she hoped she didn ' t. Surely she had been careful enough . . .

' Cadet Vatta, ' the Commandant said. No thawing at all, and his left eyelid drooped ominously.

' Sir, ' she said.

' I won ' t even ask what you thought you were doing, ' he said. ' I don ' t want to know. I don ' t care. '

' Sir ' She hated the squeak in her voice.

' Don ' t play the innocent with me, Cadet. ' Rumor had it that if his left eyelid actually closed, cadets died. She wasn ' t sure she believed that, but she hoped she wasn ' t about to find out. ' You are a disgrace to the Service. '

Ky almost shook her head in confusion. What could he be talking about

' Going outside the chain of command like this ' ' he thumped the sheet of paper ' ' embarrassing the Service. '

' Sir ' ' She gulped, caught between the etiquette that required silence until she was given leave to speak, and a desperate need to find out what had the Commandant ' s eyelid hovering ever nearer to its mate.

' You have something to say, Cadet ' the Commandant asked. His voice, like his face, might have been carved out of a glacier. ' Do go ahead . . . ' It was not a generous offer.

' Sir, with the greatest respect, this cadet does not know to what the Commandant is referring . . . '

His lips disappeared altogether. ' Oh, you can play the innocent all you want, Cadet, and maintain that formal folderol, but you don ' t fool me. ' He paused. Ky searched her memory, and came up empty. ' Well, since you insist, let ' s try this: do you recall the name Mandy Rocher '