The Captain of TransSolar’s Eridani Star was not a happy man. By all rights, he ought to have been satisfied, confident, and even smug. He’d just received permission to open trade talks with the Orion-settled world of Daros IV, the commercial center for an entire sector. ‘Unfortunately,’ thought the Captain, ‘there is a fly in the ointment — several flies, in fact, and they all wear Star Fleet uniforms. A Federation merchant ship had disappeared near the Daros system, and someone in Intelligence was convinced that the Eridani Star would make an excellent spy ship.’