AM Foster’s debut novel in The Pilot Program Series Cael Irix does not take risks. Every decision in his life is calculated. Every variable accounted for. Every outcome reduced to a number with a comfortably low probability of death. It’s a method that has kept him alive in a universe that is, statistically speaking, trying quite hard to correct that. So when Cael accepts a quiet job auditing expense reports, it is, by every available metric, the safest choice he has ever made.

They did not mention the bounty hunters during the interview.

Because his new employer, ARBITER, operates at the intersection of governance, commerce, and accountability—a polite way of saying they are paid to track down the most dangerous individuals in the galaxy and deliver them to justice. The bounty hunters handle the violence. Cael handles the paperwork.

At least, that was the arrangement. When an overlooked contract clause expands the scope of his role, Cael and three fellow analysts are dragged out of their ergonomic chairs and onto a ship alongside the very field unit whose budgets they have been cutting for months. Cael Irix does not take risks.

He is just included in the calculations now. An absurd science fiction comedy in the spirit of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Tom Holt, this is story about bureaucracy, bad decisions, and what happens when the safest person in the galaxy is forced to participate.