Flight of the Sparrow

When a notorious space pirate is accused of intergalactic terrorism, her longtime cronies go after an unlikely recruit: her ambitious cadet granddaughter. Nimah may have been born a RIM-rat, a hardscrabble kid from the far reaches of the galaxy, but now that she's a well-respected cadet at the prestigious STARS military academy, she's put her past behind her. Or so she thinks, until her future is obliterated by the return of her infamous space pirate grandmother, who abandoned her at a barren outpost fifteen years ago, and is accused of setting off a bomb at the millennial summit for United Planetary Nation leaders. When her connection to Capt. Indira "La Voz" Roscoe is exposed by an anonymous source, Nimah is expelled from STARS. Devastated by the loss of all that she's worked for, she still doesn't quite believe that the woman who has always been the voice of refugees across the galaxy, bestowing the fruits of her heists upon the poor, is actually a killer. But when a member of her grandmother's old crew tracks Nimah down and delivers the news that Ro was set up, Nimah must make a choice. The only way to regain what she's lost is to prove Ro's innocence, and they can't do that if she's dead. The plan is simple-and insane: Nimah has three days to band together a motley crew of geriatric women plus a notorious thief, steal her grandmother's ship back, elude the powerful SIGA, and cross the void to save Ro before she's executed for intergalactic terrorism. Otherwise, her dreams and the last surviving member of her family will be lost forever. Should be easy work for a former RIM-rat. Or it would be if Nimah wasn't terrified to the bone of the void . . .