Fresh out of school, Bart heads down to the Lhari spaceport to meet his dad. Instead of his father, a stranger using his dad's identity shows up, hands him false documents, and enlists him in a plot to steal the secret of the Lhari warp drive.

A fairly interesting story of a kid in over his head in a universe where humans and aliens have an uneasy co-existence. Bart is an interesting character who has lots of chances to make the wrong choices--and sometimes he does. He grows throughout the book, which is really about trust and morality.