The Warrior's Shade by Ingrid Moon

The Warrior's Shade by Ingrid Moon
A fleet for hire.
A mysterious client.
A weapon of mass destruction.

No longer a commander, Turner Boone will come to the rescue of any fleet that will pay him. However, he has done his job too well, and his clients have no need to call. His fleet-for-hire is running out of funds-and options.

Things look up when he is hired to retrieve the wreckage of an ancient terraforming machine. He soon realizes the device can be turned into a devastating weapon, and he has no idea who his well-paying client is. Caught between delivering the artifact to the client, whose methods to collect it are ruthless, and hiding his fleet from the Coalition Navy, who hunts him as a traitor, Boone faces the most difficult decision of his life.
In discovering the client’s secret, his investigation goes too deep, propelling himself and the assassin, Elyon, into a Coalition trap-one that will require untenable sacrifices to avoid execution.

Epic Space Battles, Biological “Magic,” Found Family, Galactic Empire, Pirates, A Rebellious Assassin, Daring Pilots and more!
The Warrior’s Shade is a desperate chase across the galaxy, where a young man discovers his fatal flaw, and an assassin learns the meaning of sacrifice.