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A collection of four Rim Worlds stories, Tramp Captain sees Chandler's hero ply the spaceways at the edge of the galaxy. Now the owner and pilot of a deep space pinnace, the former officer of the Survey Service is once again caught up strange adventures, all the while managing to remain one step ahead of disaster.
Contents
* Contents derived from the New York (City),New York (State),
c
United States of America (USA),
c
Americas,:Science Fiction Book Club [USA],2003 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
Having resigned his commission in the Survey Service rather than face a court martial, John Grimes is now owner and master of Little Sister, a pinnace spacecraft made of modified gold. Formerly the property of the Baroness d'Estang of El Dorado, the ship has come to Grimes in lieu of back pay. Grimes is at a low point in his ever-shifting space career. His last delivery ended in disaster and he's now stuck on a planet with Little Sister impounded and awaiting a law-suit. Financial necessity forces him to take on the lowest space job of them all - caretaker captain of a decommissioned orbiting spaceship. Then Grimes falls into the clutches of terrorists and needs all his luck to get out alive. Even when he does, with the help of Susie and her comrade, he bounces from one danger to another - this time in the form of tiny female-like sharp-toothed creatures whose only reason for existing is to eat Grimes alive!'
'John Grimes, owner of the deep space pinnace Little Sister, could not afford to be fussy about whom he carried. But there were compensations, for if his ship had not been chartered to take Fenella Pruin, muckraking reporter, to exclusive New Venusberg he would never have been able to visit that fabulous pleasure planet.
But there was to be a little pleasure in it for him. Among the visitors was a Shaara princess who owed him vengeance. The planet's authorities were after Fenella's blood to prevent her snooping. Had it not been for the boomerang throwing abilities of two sexy dancers from New Alice, the spaceman and the journalist would have been sacrificed to make a Roman holiday. The spectator sports of the very rich and very depraved involve a high mortality rate among the players.'
'In luck and out of luck, John Grimes was a living legend of the spaceways. He had been an officer of the service, he had been the victim of a mutiny, he had discovered lost worlds, he had served under strange masters and on strange ships, but he had never turned space pirate. Until this adventure.
How it happened was a complex story to begin with, but typical Grimes luck. How he became the terror of the star lanes developed, as usual, from his own efforts to make an honest living and other's efforts to use him for devious diversions.
'His wild career as a space pirate ended, Grimes faced his toughest assignment - he was "punished" by being made governor of the anarchists' own planet! John Grimes, living legend of the spaceways, had been in and out of some cosmic catastrophes but this threatened to reach his luck's ultimate breaking point!
An influx of planetary refugees had made that world a paradise of cheap labor and the original anarchist colonists had become such masters of wealth that no mere outsider could hope to dictate "law and order" to them. They had their own ideas which included slavery, treachery, and utter villainy.
Grimes' first task as governor would be simply to stay alive with a whole world plotting his murder!'
