Simeon was bored. Not with being a shellperson-like Helva, The Ship Who Sang, and Tia, The Ship Who Searched, he rather pitied "softshells" their mayfly lives and absurdly limited senses-but with running the mining and processing station that made up his "body." So when the arrival of an out-of-control refugee ship interrupted his latest wargame the excitement was welcome. Then the refugees told their story: attack by space barbarians. Soon, long before any help could arrive from Fleet, Station SSS-900 would be in the Fist of High-Clan Kolnar, and nobody would be bored, least of all Simeon. If anyone was to survive, somehow he must transmute his hobby into the real thing, and become The City Who Fought. It's ten years later, and Joat, the eleven year old techno-demon from The City Who Fought, is an adult herself, and by hook, crook and blackmail she's become one of the youngest commercial ship owners in human space.