Pirates of the Gorm

In the silent darkness of a deep‑space liner, Grant Pemberton awakens to a glint of danger—a Ganymedan intruder slipping a lethal beam through his cabin. The ship’s eclectic crew—Earthmen, Martians, Venusians, and the spindly Ganymedans—remain oblivious, their dreams interrupted only by the echo of a concealed menace. Pemberton’s glimpse of the alien’s spindly fingers reveals that someone knows his true identity, despite his cover as a harmless commercial traveler.

Summoned to a clandestine briefing, Grant learns that a string of luxury fliers has simply vanished, leaving no wreckage and no radio trace. The vanished vessels once carried the spoils of the feared Ganymede pirates, now supposedly repentant members of the Planetary League. Tasked with tracking the missing ships, he is drawn toward a rumored lake of fire where the deadliest secrets of the solar system may be smoldering.