Swirl Savard's life is not going to plan. Exiled by her alien masters to the scuzziest part of the galaxy for crimes she can't even be sure she was complicit in, the once promising combat agent has been reduced to peddling strange drugs aboard a mile-long space slum. If there is an upside, Swirl's can be sure her sister isn't part of it. Sparkle Savard is louche, frivolous and- worst of all- shares the same brain and body as Swirl. But when mysterious killers attack, the two head-sisters must learn to stop bickering and flee for their lives. Hargie Stukes' life never really had a plan. He prefers it that way. One of the bubblefolk, a race of faster-then-light addicted lowlifes, Hargie jumps from star to star, bar to bar, forever outrunning a past best forgotten. When a woman with a fluctuating persona buys a ride in his ship, Hargie tries to see it as just another job. But some jobs you can't walk away from, not if you want to remain alive. Melid of Silvercloud's life is but a tiny component in one immense organisation. Empathically bonded to her own kind, she feels absolutely nothing for the rest of humanity. Melid is ordered to hunt down a mysterious woman before she can return to her even more mysterious home world. Mercy won't come into it. Swirl Savard's life is not going to plan. Exiled by her alien masters to the scuzziest part of the galaxy for crimes she can't even be sure she was complicit in, the once promising combat agent has been reduced to peddling strange drugs aboard a mile-long space slum. If there is an upside, Swirl's can be sure her sister isn't part of it. Sparkle Savard is louche, frivolous and- worst of all- shares the same brain and body as Swirl. But when mysterious killers attack, the two head-sisters must learn to stop bickering and flee for their lives. Hargie Stukes' life never really had a plan. He prefers it that way. One of the bubblefolk, a race of faster-then-light addicted lowlifes, Hargie jumps from star to star, bar to bar, forever outrunning a past best forgotten. When a woman with a fluctuating persona buys a ride in his ship, Hargie tries to see it as just another job. But some jobs you can't walk away from, not if you want to remain alive. Melid of Silvercloud's life is but a tiny component in one immense organisation. Empathically bonded to her own kind, she feels absolutely nothing for the rest of humanity. Melid is ordered to hunt down a mysterious woman before she can return to her even more mysterious home world. Mercy won't come into it. It will be a chase across the known galaxy, through broken worlds and the palaces of their psychotic warlords, to the very edge of sanity and into the heart of the universe's greatest enigma: those silent beasts of the void, the Scalpels. Part one of a space opera epic, The Scalpel unleashes a mind-warping tale of galactic intrigue, explosive action, incandescent dialogue and smouldering passions. Buckle in and take the ride.