Niko Larsen and a handful of the soldiers she once commanded have escaped the ranks of the Holy Hive Mind and retired to start a restaurant, the Last Chance, aboard the space station TwiceFar. The restaurant proves unexpectedly successful, to the point where a famous food critic, Lolola Montaigne d’Arcy deBurgh, reserves a table. Niko and the others are excited about the prospect of earning a coveted Nikkelin Orb, but the day of the meal, a mysterious package arrives, containing Atlanta, an heir to the Paxian throne, with no knowledge of why she’s been sent in cryo-freeze to Niko. Just as Lolola is seated with visiting wealthy dilettante Arpat Takraven, things start exploding on the station and it’s torn apart by unknown forces.
The group, along with the critic and the package containing Atlanta, flee the station on You Sexy Thing, an intelligent bioship. Thinking itself stolen, the ship is headed to the nearest authorities in order to turn its captors in when Lolola circumvents its programming for her own purpose, taking the ship to a haven for space pirates, IAPH.
There, Niko encounters two figures from her past: her former lover Petalia and the pirate leader Tubal Last, who kidnapped Petalia long ago and has been poisoning them against Niko ever since. When one of the crew, pastry chef Milly, attempts to betray the group to win her own freedom, circumstances conspire to let her actions free them all, destroying the pirate haven, but not before Last has killed one of the crew, Thorn, a young were-lion whose loss devastates his twin brother, Talon.
Petalia chooses not to stay with the group. Angry and embittered at Niko, they leave the ship at Montmurray Station. The rest return the ship to its original owner, Takraven, who allows them to keep it for now, with the stricture that each year they’ll return to cook him a meal and tell him of their adventures.
All seems well until Niko receives a message. Tubal Last is alive. And he’s planning revenge.
THE CREW
NIKO LARSEN’s highly volatile military career has led to her nickname, “The Ten-Hour Admiral.” Rather than be absorbed into the Holy Hive Mind, she pretended to have a calling toward artistry in food and thus managed to muster out, along with the others. Human, she was raised among the Free Traders but left them when they refused to ransom Petalia from the pirates.
DABRY JEN is Niko’s second-in-command. He’s also the culinary genius behind the Last Chance’s success. An Ettilite, his four arms allow him considerable dexterity in the kitchen. Competent and loyal, Dabry provides his captain with his all, as he has ever since they enlisted at the same time in the ranks of the Holy Hive Mind.
GIO is an augmented chimpanzee from Old Terra and Dabry’s sous chef. He has chosen not to get vocal augmentation, preferring sign language for communication. When in the Holy Hive Mind, he was a skilled quartermaster, and even now is adept at wheedling supplies for the restaurant and making things do double, sometimes triple service.
SKIDOO is a Tlellan, a composite entity resembling a brightly colored terrestrial squid. Once the group’s communications officer, Skidoo remains the one who handles bookings, reservations, and similar matters. Pleasure-loving and sensual, Skidoo is usually a peacemaker in the group.
LASSITE, a reptilian Sessile, is a former priest who follows Niko because of his conviction that she is the one who will follow the Golden Path, a prophecy whose enactment he has been preparing for all his life.
MILLY is relatively new to the group, once a soldier and now a pastry chef who has replaced a former member who vanished. She is a Nneti, a birdlike race renowned for their deadly grace.
TALON’s mother entrusted him and his twin brother THORN into Niko’s care while in the Holy Hive Mind’s service. The twins were sunny, enthusiastic, and devoted to the sport of warball, something that Talon has abandoned in his despondency at his twin’s loss.
ATLANTA thought she was an Imperial heir, but now she’s discovered she’s nothing of the sort, just a clone of the actual heir. Uncertain of her place in the universe, she’s taken shelter with the group for now, but doesn’t know what the future may bring and if Imperial plans still include her.
YOU SEXY THING is enjoying itself for the first time in a long existence and is learning about the concept of emotions in the process. Opinionated, loquacious, and self-centered, the ship is getting acquainted not just with its new crew but with itself as well.