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Hotshot. Shuttle jockey.

A pilot crazy enough to try a docking maneuver that's already killed two men, and good enough to pull it off. Just the pilot that the Company needs for a suicide run, to catch a sabotaged liner falling into the sun.

Her name is Melacha Rendell: They call her the Skyrider.

But trouble is brewing between the Earth Company and the independent asteroid miners, and SOMEONE doesn't want the Skyrider to succeed. Someone wants this incident to become the first engagement of the Colonial Wars.

Earth's deep-space mining colonies smolder on the brink of rebellion. At the height of a high-tension summit, terrorists have kidnapped a group of Earther VIPs. They claim to be Colonials, but they could be provocateurs bent on starting a war.

A rescue mission is out of the question. The Company's policy on hostages is clear: They're expendable. Besides, only a pilot skilled enough to make a dead-dock landing--and crazy enough to go in alone--could get inside the terrorists' defenses.

But there is someone that good--and that crazy. Melacha Rendell, the hotshot shuttle jockey known as the Skyrider...

The Colonial War is finally a reality, and this time the Skyrider knows which side she's on. But is one hot-shot shuttle pilot enough to even up the odds? The Colonials are determined, but the Earthers have all the power! They are ready to meet the challenge, but all that stands between them and defeat is a rag-tag fleet and the Skyrider.

The Brief War is over, but hatred still smolders between Earth and her space colonies. Earth's latest maneuver is to withhold supplies from the older, man-built colonies, without which they cannot survive. From one of them comes the dashing, heroic Pirate Prince, to wreak havoc throughout Earth's shipping lanes, stealing what his colony can no longer buy. But his exploits may ignite another war if the Skyrider doesn't stop him in time.

Someone is dumping infants in the Skyrider's care. Someone else is determined to kill them, and her with them. In a fight that spans the Solar System, the Skyrider fends off murderous fanatics while she searches for the reason the existence of these particular infants seems about to plunge humanity into yet another ruinous war.