Jaq Merril is not the polished legend history prefers, but a ruthless visionary who turns Cold War suspicion into an empire of piracy. In the tense "Wall Decade," when Earth's rival powers carry their distrust into space, Merril sees opportunity in division, greed, and resentment. From a Mars-side gin mill, she persuades five starship captains to form the Compact, a pirate alliance built on anger at the wealthy owners who profit from their labor. Together they seize a hidden asteroid base and begin raiding merchant and military targets across the solar system. Their first great strike against the Queen of Heaven, a merchant ship laden with treasure and captive women, reveals the Compact's brutal methods. The campaign escalates at Corfu, where Merril's ships destroy a Russian asteroid base and leave no survivors, then continue striking bases and taking whatever they want. As America and Russia remain too divided to respond effectively, the Compact grows rich, arrogant, and feared, reshaping interplanetary power beneath a veneer of "peace." This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.