The novel “Starship: Mercenary” by Mike Resnick was published for the first time in 2007. It is the third novel in the “Starship” series and follows “Starship: Pirate”.

After rebelling, the crew of the former Republic starship Theodore Roosevelt spent a period in which they were pirates but it wasn’t the right choice. Now Captain Wilson Cole started offering the starship and crew’s services as mercenaries selecting jobs to keep certain ethical and moral values.

Wilson Cole is assisted by the alien who calls himself David Copperfield in finding paid jobs but the ones he found tend to be really dangerous. Cole decides to reach a space station that is important as a leisure center but also for contacts in the frontier. There, he and his crew will find new opportunities but also new dangers.