Vatta’s War series by Elizabeth Moon

Trading in Danger
(The first book in the Vatta’s War series)
(2003)
Kylara Vatta is the only daughter in a family full of sons, and her father’s only child to buck tradition by choosing a military career instead of joining the family business. For Ky, it’s no contest: Even running the prestigious Vatta Transport Ltd. shipping concern can’t hold a candle to shipping out as an officer aboard an interstellar cruiser. It’s adventure, not commerce, that stirs her soul. And despite her family’s misgivings, there can be no doubt that a Vatta in the service will prove a valuable asset. But with a single error in judgment, it all comes crumbling down.

Expelled from the Academy in disgrace-and returning home to her humiliated family, a storm of high-profile media coverage, and the gaping void of her own future-Ky is ready to face the inevitable onslaught of anger, disappointment, even pity. But soon after opportunity’s door slams shut, Ky finds herself with a ticket to ride- and a shot at redemption-as captain of a Vatta Transport ship.

It’s a simple assignment: escorting one of the Vatta fleet’s oldest ships on its final voyage . . . to the scrapyard. But keeping it simple has never been Ky’s style. And even though her father has provided a crew of seasoned veterans to baby-sit the fledgling captain on her maiden milk run, they can’t stop Ky from turning the routine mission into a risky venture-in the name of turning a profit for Vatta Transport, of course.

By snapping up a lucrative delivery contract defaulted on by a rival company, and using part of the proceeds to upgrade her condemned vehicle, Ky aims to prove she’s got more going for her than just her family’s famous name. But business will soon have to take a backseat to bravery, when Ky’s change of plans sails her and the crew straight into the middle of a colonial war. For all her commercial savvy, it’s her military training and born-soldier’s instincts that Ky will need to call on in the face of deadly combat, dangerous mercenaries, and violent mutiny. . .

Marque and Reprisal
(Moving Target)
(The second book in the Vatta’s War series)
(2004)
Second entry in Moon’s latest spacefaring saga (Trading in Danger, 2003)-and it’s a corker. After her adventures in the inaugural volume, young ex-military Captain Kylara Vatta, child of a powerful space-trading family, now struggles to get her ancient, creaky ship spaceworthy, working, trading, and making money. Assisted by Aunt Gracie’s diamond-stuffed fruitcake, Ky hires mercenaries to protect her and other independent ships as they attempt to reach planet Lastway, incommunicado since the attack that crippled most of the spaceways’ ansibles (instantaneous communicators). Meanwhile, unknown to Ky, a devastating assault on planet Slotter Key destroys Vatta HQ and kills most of her family; more ansibles are attacked or jammed, so it’s not clear whether the target is ISC, owner and operator of the ansibles, Vatta, or both-since Vatta supported ISC’s benevolent monopoly. When Ky learns the dreadful news, she vows to survive, assist other Vatta survivors, discover who the enemy is and why they attacked, and destroy them. She considers piracy, but the mercenaries won’t contract with pirates. She picks up two Vatta survivors, agent Stella and ship’s apprentice Toby, and gets the assistance of the roguish and dangerously charming Rafe Madeston, a renegade ISC scion and secret agent. The group encounters, possibly by chance, another ship registered to Vatta. But who’s aboard? Friend or foe? Family or conspirators? Ky’s life, and that of her ship and crew, depends on her finding the right answers. Excellent plotting and characters support the utterly realistic action sequences: swift, jolting, confusing, and merciless. Equally significant, Moon doesn’t neglect violence’s aftermath.

Engaging the Enemy
(The third book in the Vatta’s War series)
(2006)
For fans of fast-paced adventure and compelling characters, the military science fiction of Nebula Award—winning author Elizabeth Moon is the perfect choice.

The brilliantly unorthodox Kylara Vatta, black-sheep scion of Vatta Transport Ltd., one of the galaxy’s wealthiest merchant houses, is a heroine like no other, blessed with a killer instinct for business and for battle. Now, in the aftermath of cold-blooded assassinations that have left her parents dead and the Vatta shipping empire shattered, Kylara faces her greatest challenge yet.

There is a time for grief and a time for revenge. This is decidedly the latter. Placing her cousin Stella in command of the trading vessel Gary Tobai, Ky embarks aboard the captured pirate ship Fair Kaleen on a twofold mission: to salvage the family business and to punish those responsible for the killings . . . before they strike again.

Since the network providing instantaneous communication between star systems has been sabotaged, news is hard to come by and available information impossible to trust. But as she travels from system to system, with Stella a step behind, Ky pieces together the clues and discovers a conspiracy of terrifying scope, breathtaking audacity, and utter ruthlessness.

The only hope the independent systems and merchants have against this powerful enemy is to band together. Unfortunately, because she commands a ship known to belong to a notorious pirate – her own relative Osman Vatta, whom she killed for his part in her parents’ deaths – Ky is met with suspicion, if not outright hostility. Rumors swirl about her intent, her very identity. Soon even Stella begins to question her cousin’s decisions and her authority to make them.

Meanwhile, the conspiracy Ky hunts is hunting her in turn, with agents insinuated into every space station, every planetary government, every arm of the military, and every merchant house – including her own. Before she can take the fight to the enemy, Kylara must survive a deadly minefield of deception and betrayal.

Command Decision
(The fourth book in the Vatta’s War series)
(2007)
Kylara had to leave a bright future as a military cadet, and was thrown into the brutal world of off-world trading. This subsequent career in the family business was tough: marked by war, mutiny and attempted assassination. But then her home was attacked and her parents killed – their trading empire left in ruins. Now she must save what is left of the family and the business, with few friends and too few assets. She must make full use of her hard-won experience to not just survive, but to restore the shattered fortunes of the Vatta family and their allies. Now, Kylara Vatta, space-trader and sometime privateer, has destined herself for a dangerous and unpredictable future. She will muster an interplanetary taskforce and forge them into a lethal weapon: one that the pirates who destroyed her family will never forget …