Nine misfit academics on an expedition to find the volcryn, a mythic race of interstellar nomads, and the only ship available for the strange quest is the Nightflyer, a cybernetic wonder with a never-seen captain...

Nine innocents are about to find themselves in deep space, trapped with an insane murderer who can go anywhere, do anything, and intends to kill them all...

First published as a Short Story in Analog, April 1980.

Republished as a Novella in Binary Star 5 in 1981.

Also published in:

• Nightflyers
• GRRM: A RRetrospective