To The Stars (ePub)

Trading With Rim Worlds Is Profitable But Very Dangerous. It is considered suicidal for any merchant ship to venture into the Rim. There are no laws. Mercy is a sign of weakness.

Ben Wilson owns a shipbuilding company and builds a heavily armed trade ship. It is a dream ship he spent twenty years designing. Due to a Galactic recession, there are no buyers for the ship. He gives the ship to his youngest son, Thomas Wilson.

Thomas named his ship Demon because, years earlier, the Principal called him a demon when she expelled him from school. She expelled him when he learned to fight back. This one incident changed his life. With a magnificent ship, Captain Thomas Wilson sets out to reopen trade with the Outer Planets and the Rim Worlds. These planets have an abundance of valuable rare earth minerals but have been cut off from the riches of the Core Planets.

The Demon is always at battle stations whenever it comes out of hyperspace. Space pirates and marauders are everywhere. Pirates will steal a ship's cargo, but marauders kill the crew and take the ship. They face short-tempered assailants, and mercenaries when visiting a space station or planet. Avoiding a fight is not an option.

Demon has a backup computer that is sentient. It does not want to die and would like to reproduce. To achieve this, the ship and the Captain must survive.

When Captain Thomas Wilson manages to single-handedly reopen trade with the far-flung Rim Worlds, the navy is impressed enough to hire him for a special mission. He is to deliver arms to the Rim, which is in the direct path of an expected alien invasion. Death is almost certain for everyone on the Rim. But the Demon is no ordinary ship and with its help, they might just survive. But first, the Demon must survive. With its rich cargo, the Demon is an attractive prize.

Then, Thomas meets Suzanna. She joins the crew of the Demon, and their passion grows. She is a top negotiator and knows how to get the greatest profit from their cargo.

The navy has its mission, Thomas has an agenda, and the ship's sentient AI has its own desires.