Perce Verden quits the most disgusting job in the world to join the interstellar merchant marine abort the aging, gargantuan cargo ship Fisher King. There, he quickly runs into pirates, learns why experiencing the vacuum of space without a spacesuit makes your tongue itch, and kills a crew member. He learns new things and makes new best friends who poison him and cut his throat, but not without apologizing.What worries him is the troopers who catch up to the Fisher King and want to bring him back for involvement in a suspicious death. On the way down from orbit, all hell breaks loose. Can Perce save himself?