To Make A Hero

On Cardigan's Green, a plague-haunted colony where history has curdled into legend, survival and ambition are never far apart. The tale opens as a revisionist chronicle of a stranded world scarred by repeated outbreaks, then shifts to Leland Hale: fugitive, fraud, and brilliant opportunist, who steals an Interstellar Police ship and hides on the remote planet with stolen wealth and a plan to wait out the pursuit. But Cardigan's Green is already a battlefield of schemes. The colony's power broker, Yon the Fisher, has quietly built his influence around the wreck of the starship Morris and the precious crystals it yielded, only to face the arrival of the hospital ship Caduceus and a disastrous plague encounter that leaves both sides trapped in stalemate. Twelve years later, Hale is found on the shore, ill and half-dead, and immediately senses profit in the stranded ship, the colony's secrets, and Yon's ambitions. As Hale negotiates with Yon, inspects the damaged Morris, survives a feast of strange local delicacies, and discovers the value of the blue-white crystals, he keeps turning crisis into opportunity. Even plague becomes leverage, and his "help" opens the door to deeper manipulation, including the exploitation of local customs and Yon's wife, Caryl. Satirical, tense, and morally sharp, this is a science-fiction story of disease, greed, and the fine line between cunning and corruption. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.