Chaos and order

the long version

From first page Bantam paperback July 1995: They are a handful of fugitives from an outlaw world, old enemies trapped on a renegade spaceship in a desperate bid for survival. Among the unlikely crew of *Trumpet* are Morn Hyland, once a UMCP cop, now a prisoner of the electrodes planted in her brain, her son Davies, "force-grown" to adulthood by the alien Amnion, the amoral space buccaneer Nick Succorso, and the unstoppable cyborg Angus Thermopyle. Locked in a lethal battle for control of the ship, they are also the target of the police ship *Punisher*. But *Punisher*'s human captain is torn between duty and sympathy. She's been ordered to kill everyone aboard *Trumpet* -- everyone except for the one whose blood carries the key to the ultimate alien triumph: the ability to appear perfectly human.