I still can’t get over the fact that the main character, a starship Captain is named “Miggy” Morrison! That’s not a name I would ever associate with a strong, commanding character, but it is what it is. His full name is Michelangelo Morrison which could have been shortened to “Mike” or “Mitch” or anything but “Miggy”. Sounds like a cartoon character!
Anyway to get on with this review, you’ll remember something dreadful happened to the CEO of Sysgov, Ms. Marigold Prim. She and Chief Boatswain’s Mate Alejandro Duran had found they had a very mutual love interest and that was something new for the Chief. As a sailor, he was used to wild flings during his youth, but this was something else. Her was a proper woman that found him worth loving and he into fell in love with her. Only Marigold has just met her fate out an airlock on Araf Station and Chief Duran is going to find out who did this and kill them!
He’s going to get help from Chief Ramflay since the person that probably did the deed is a very powerful Yalteen alien who just happens to work for Financial Manager Dauhnwright Snidely of Sysgov. Snidely was thought to have been behind every one of the problems Captain Morrison and the *Cabrillo* had since they came to Araf Station. He constantly denied any funding request made by the Captain even though those requests were made to equip his ship in protection of the very same space-station Snidely and Sysgov occupied. So after some intense investigation the two Chiefs had enough evidence to interrogate the Yalteen Vacoom. The interrogation wasn’t going to be very nice because if they found out he had killed Marigold, then he was going to also die a very painful death. Or that was what Chief Duran had in mind.
Meanwhile, Captain Morrison had his own problems. The owner and his friend g’Hob, another alien, had been warning the Captain that there was an enemy the was soon to show up in this part of space and they needed to be prepared. Captain Morrison didn’t know what g’Hobs was talking about but he did know that g’Hob wasn’t one to tell tall tales or makeup stories. G’Hobs seemed to be truly terrified of some kind of enemy that had yet to show itself in this sector of space, but he was warning Captain Morrison that they were coming.
The they he was talking about were known simply as the “Seekers” and they were a powerful alien race that destroyed everything and everyone in their path. Captain Morrison didn’t know how g’Hobs knew all this but he and his friend hadn’t been together that long so something in g’Hob’s past must have happened to scare him so terribly.
Then the Seekers showed up! They initially came in scout ships that started prowling the outer reaches of the Pakrewan system. They began by destroying small mining operations on asteroids and moons at the outer reaches of the system. The *Cabrillo* lunched immediately to go investigate and found themselves in a short but dangerous battle. These scout ships didn’t seem to be all that powerful, but Captain Morrison suspected they were only the lead elements of a much more powerful Navy. He was also aware that his ship was the only combat capable ship in the entire Pakrewan system. So, he returned back to Araf Station and began asking for help in building defenses for the station and to put some weapons system on some of the mining platforms. He also began asking for volunteers to beef up his forces both on the ship and at some of the floating weapon station they were going to be built. His main problem was the didn’t know when the main body of the Seeker fleet would show nor did he know just how powerful it would be.
It wasn’t long before all his questions were going to be answered. This battle for the Pakrewan system was going to be a fight for their very lives. After seeing the Dreadnoughts and the Worldenders, Captain Morrison knew he could not win this battle. He also knew that these Seekers wouldn’t stop with just this system, but would soon go through the Bith gate and threaten the rest of the galaxy.They had to be warned!
So a very exciting last few chapters that turned out very different than I thought they might. Does Captain Morrison survive? I don’t know. We’ll all have to read book 3, “Salvage Defense”, now available on Amazon.
[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]
[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]