On the luxury space-liner Seven Stars, undercover Patrol agent Jim Fanning is sent to watch the unsettling Brenda Carson, whose fear at the mention of Asteroid-9 hints at a secret far bigger than superstition. En route to Mars, passengers trade rumors of the "Phantom" raider, a ghost-ship menace blamed for vanished vessels found adrift and airless, while Jim quietly realizes the liner is carrying a covert, politically explosive cargo of Earth weapons bound for Mars and the rebel conflict on Deimos. When Patrolship-2 arrives as escort and is suddenly crippled by an unseen attack, the legend becomes terrifying fact. As suspicion tightens aboard ship, Jim follows clues through the silent corridors, from cryptic Carson conversations to a hidden map marked "Andros," and into the machinery levels where sabotage has already severed the ship's radio-helio. Brenda's apparent involvement ends in tragedy when her body is found drifting outside, and the investigation turns toward Philip Carson. A hidden X-ray revelation exposes him as the Phantom raider, complete with a metal skull, but when Jim confronts him, Carson strikes back with a drug bomb and escapes into space. The pursuit drives Jim toward the bleak, lonely surface of Asteroid-9, where the raider's secret base may be waiting. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.