"Don't let me die - again!" As Alibi Jones and his covert ops team investigate an ancient alien derelict on the fringes of human space some call a "Ghost Ship", the dead fiancé of a crew member appears on their Cruiser's bridge. Ghost? Projection? He pleads, "Don't let me die - again!" Alibi Jones was a Mediator for the Solar Alliance Interplanetary Force in the 2130's - but that's all changing. He's made an example of after news gets out Alibi's partly responsible for the destruction of pleasure planet Kismet. Bounced out of the Mediation Corps, Alibi's reassigned to Covert Ops. His cover: running cargo from a new remote base - The Hornet's Nest. Alibi Jones gets to know his new crew as they get a handle on running small cargoes and cover operations: Gluttonous planetary crime lords, alien parasites and symbiotes, psychics and scientists, galactic Godfathers, friendly free traders, astral travel - all dangerous. But when they check out the so-called "ghost ship", people do start dying. Again.