On a planet far from Earth, remains of a long dead alien civilization have been found. But this news has not reached the authorities—nor will it. Fourteen murderers—a mixed bag of human and alien criminals—have seen to that by killing the team of forty scientists who discovered the remains. These professional criminals combine their talents to search through the rubble for a hypothetical alien super-weapon. Leather thinks she's got what it takes to rub shoulders with the worst of them but soon realizes she’s in way over her head. Worse, as conflicts struggle to tear it apart, she learns just how unstable a team of criminals can be. Call it anything you like: treachery, betrayal, or just reducing the number with whom one must share the final spoils. Here, as in all of life, cowards and the dead reap nothing.
Cast of Characters
Leather -- A runaway teenage girl. Tough and bold, she is learning to scrape out a living in the alleys of the largest city on Big Sandy: one of several dozen human inhabited worlds. Sleeping under bridges and in the dusty basement of an abandoned church, she takes the name Leather because it makes her feel tough, and she is determined to survive. She falls for a con-man named Johnny Bopp, and runs off with him straight into an assorted gang of mostly alien criminals.
Peter -- An evil little physicist who lusts after Leather and dreams of securing her to his torture rack, which at the moment holds an alien physicist he'd kidnapped weeks earlier, and from whom he’s been extracting scientific secrets. Peter plots to kill all the other gang members and capture Leather alive and undamaged so that he can damage her slowly and repeatedly for his morbid sexual enjoyment.
Breensdil -- A large and gentle insect-bearing alien. His people are peace-loving and nonviolent, and he is their greatest living physicist. Unfortunately, he is being tortured for secrets of advanced physics by Peter who intends to use these secrets to create more powerful weapons he can then sell to his Neo-Nazi allies on the colony world of Ironfeld.
Pug -- An easy-going frog-like alien of vast power and wealth who secretly owns and manages this galaxy. Each of her people own and manage one galaxy; by their laws anyone not up this task is aborted even if they are an adult. She causally decides which civilizations within her galaxy will live and which must be destroyed. She likes this new human civilization, and has an odd fondness for Johnny Bopp.
Johnny Bopp -- A happy-go-lucky human con-man and jewel thief who enjoys the company of aliens. A xenophile, he is forever seeking new things to see and do and taste and experience.
Eve Adams -- A beautiful and voluptuous android containing, and controlled by, a pair of octopus-like aliens who think as one because they are permanently mated. Driven by their obsession to studying human beings, they attempt to seduce Johnny away from Leather using their sensuous android body.
Aristat Sookirat -- Johnny Bopp's loyal friend. A bright red alien criminal who has more than once killed to protect Johnny. And needs little provocation to do it again.
Keuzleev -- Pug's dutiful assistant. A short alien shaped somewhat like a ten-year-old human with a white bed sheet thrown over her.
The Spee -- The extremely effective crew of Pug's ship who are obnoxious only because they are so competitive and playful and noisy. They are small insect-eating aliens with a vague resemblance to fat hairless toddlers.
Baby -- Leather's alien pet which she raises to adulthood after finding it abandoned. It has secrets too.
Electra -- A skull in Peter's display cabinet from a prostitute he'd kidnapped months ago. Peter had raped and tortured her for weeks, until she was so emotionally exhausted that she could no longer display fear and so was no longer sexually exciting to him. He misses her, but feels hopeful that Leather--with her large dark eyes which can so wonderfully display fear--will make a nice replacement.
Cast of Characters
Leather -- A runaway teenage girl. Tough and bold, she is learning to scrape out a living in the alleys of the largest city on Big Sandy: one of several dozen human inhabited worlds. Sleeping under bridges and in the dusty basement of an abandoned church, she takes the name Leather because it makes her feel tough, and she is determined to survive. She falls for a con-man named Johnny Bopp, and runs off with him straight into an assorted gang of mostly alien criminals.
Peter -- An evil little physicist who lusts after Leather and dreams of securing her to his torture rack, which at the moment holds an alien physicist he'd kidnapped weeks earlier, and from whom he’s been extracting scientific secrets. Peter plots to kill all the other gang members and capture Leather alive and undamaged so that he can damage her slowly and repeatedly for his morbid sexual enjoyment.
Breensdil -- A large and gentle insect-bearing alien. His people are peace-loving and nonviolent, and he is their greatest living physicist. Unfortunately, he is being tortured for secrets of advanced physics by Peter who intends to use these secrets to create more powerful weapons he can then sell to his Neo-Nazi allies on the colony world of Ironfeld.
Pug -- An easy-going frog-like alien of vast power and wealth who secretly owns and manages this galaxy. Each of her people own and manage one galaxy; by their laws anyone not up this task is aborted even if they are an adult. She causally decides which civilizations within her galaxy will live and which must be destroyed. She likes this new human civilization, and has an odd fondness for Johnny Bopp.
Johnny Bopp -- A happy-go-lucky human con-man and jewel thief who enjoys the company of aliens. A xenophile, he is forever seeking new things to see and do and taste and experience.
Eve Adams -- A beautiful and voluptuous android containing, and controlled by, a pair of octopus-like aliens who think as one because they are permanently mated. Driven by their obsession to studying human beings, they attempt to seduce Johnny away from Leather using their sensuous android body.
Aristat Sookirat -- Johnny Bopp's loyal friend. A bright red alien criminal who has more than once killed to protect Johnny. And needs little provocation to do it again.
Keuzleev -- Pug's dutiful assistant. A short alien shaped somewhat like a ten-year-old human with a white bed sheet thrown over her.
The Spee -- The extremely effective crew of Pug's ship who are obnoxious only because they are so competitive and playful and noisy. They are small insect-eating aliens with a vague resemblance to fat hairless toddlers.
Baby -- Leather's alien pet which she raises to adulthood after finding it abandoned. It has secrets too.
Electra -- A skull in Peter's display cabinet from a prostitute he'd kidnapped months ago. Peter had raped and tortured her for weeks, until she was so emotionally exhausted that she could no longer display fear and so was no longer sexually exciting to him. He misses her, but feels hopeful that Leather--with her large dark eyes which can so wonderfully display fear--will make a nice replacement.
