On the lam from a vicious ex-wife who'd won everything but the kitchen sink in the divorce, Ken MacKay was a journeyman crew member on Rustam's Slipper, the sorriest scow ever to move cargo between stars. Then in a low-class spacers' bar in a miserable town on a no-name world he met Catarina Lindquist, the kind of girl his mom had always warned him about. She had alabaster skin, platinum hair, and slender legs that went from here to there and back again via the scenic route. Catarina's yen for Ken was almost as strong as her passion for chocolate. Alas for Ken, Catarina's other obsession was infectious, and so was she. Soon, Ken too needed chocolate to control the symptoms of McLendon's Syndrome-- they'd live damn near forever but they'd always have a Chunky (tm) on their back. Soon Naval Intelligence found a devious use for their mutual affliction: it assigned Ken and Catarina to the planet Macdonald, whose nonhuman inhabitants had a quaint theory about the true Secret Masters of the Human Race . . .

On the lam from a vicious ex-wife who'd won everything but the kitchen sink in the divorce, Ken MacKay was a journeyman crew member on Rustam's Slipper, the sorriest scow ever to move cargo between stars. Then in a low-class spacers' bar in a miserable town on a no-name world he met Catarina Lindquist, the kind of girl his mom had always warned him about. She had alabaster skin, platinum hair, and slender legs that went from here to there and back again via the scenic route. Catarina's yen for Ken was almost as strong as her passion for chocolate. Alas for Ken, Catarina's other obsession was infectious, and so was she. Soon, Ken too needed chocolate to control the symptoms of McLendon's Syndrome-- they'd live damn near forever but they'd always have a Chunky (tm) on their back. Soon Naval Intelligence found a devious use for their mutual affliction: it assigned Ken and Catarina to the planet Macdonald, whose nonhuman inhabitants had a quaint theory about the true Secret Masters of the Human Race . . .

Ken MacKay's career in space was going nowhere. The decrepit trading ship he served on was also going nowhere: the Rustam's Slipper was grounded on Schuyler's World, a backwater planet lacking even a good bar. For diversion, Schuyler's offered bad bars, cute yet conniving aliens called Rodents, and Catarina—a mysterious, beautiful, unsettlingly smart woman. Catarina wanted a berth on the Slipper, the Slipper needed a crew member. She was hired. But Ken soon discovered that Catarina was more than a vamp with a razor-sharp wit. First was her case of McLendon's Syndrome, an obscure little contagious disease treatable only with chocolate-chip cookies. Then there were all the secrets she was hiding. So she wasn't the most trustworthy ally a guy could want as the Slipper hurtled straight into murder, mayhem, intrigue, and an interspecies war—but she was all Ken had. And unless she helped Ken whip the crew into shape and muster the misfits and malcontents of Schuyler's World, it would be the shortest war on record...