David P Smith

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight David P Smith

Space is big. Properly big. The galaxy is around one hundred thousand light years from side to side, so if you can't travel faster than light, and your lifespan is three-score years and ten . . . well you do the maths. Fortunately there's another way. Scattered around the galaxy are a network of ancient wormholes that allow you to travel from one planet to another in a single step. Unfortunately, these Tubeways through space are strictly controlled by the Galactic Union for reasons that they share with no-one. Fighting for free access to the Tubeways are the Underground, a disparate bunch of hackers, misfits and malcontents. Their latest recruit is Dan Ingram, a twenty-something recently-unemployed data analyst whose main qualifications for a life of interstellar espionage are having watched every episode of Star Trek and having completed Halo, Far-cry and Mass Effect. The Galactic Union won't know what's hit them . . .