To balance this out, Stableford uses the device of an alien symbiote, referred to as the wind, who is privy to all of Grainger's thoughts and wants to make him a better person.
Grainger is one of the few examples of a pacifist (in the pragmatic sense) lead character in science fiction, and is made all the more remarkable by the fact that he is something of an anti-hero.
She is faster and more manoeuvrable than any previous design, but despite the opportunity offered, Grainger resents the fact he is employed simply as a pilot but denied the position of captain, and cannot resign at any time during his two-year contract without dire financial penalties that he regards as thoroughly unjust.
However, left little alternative by his financial situation, Grainger takes the job, and carries out a variety of assignments for his new masters, accompanied by the unwelcome alien symbiote sharing his brain.
Brian Stableford has said that when he began writing Halcyon Drift he resolved that the series would embody an attitude towards violence closer to his own views than that of traditional action-adventure stories that he'd seen (and written) in the past.
The story begins with Grainger marooned alone on a desolate planet on the fringe of a notorious area of distorted space known as the Halcyon Drift.
Grainger has managed to survive for two years, but during his stay he has been invaded by an alien mind symbiote (although he considers it a parasite) which was similarly stranded on the planet when its previous host died there.
The management of the Caradoc Company, the owner of the rescue vessel, feel they have wasted time and money following Grainger's signal instead of the one they were seeking, and so take him to court upon his return to civilization, and successfully levy a huge salvage fee against him and any of his future earnings.
Grainger returns to Earth to inform Lapthorn's family of what happened, and along the way encounters Johnny, the grandson of an old mentor, who is trying to get a job in space.
Despite the generous terms, Grainger is suspicious, and almost balks when he learns that the first mission will be to go into the Halcyon Drift, in a completely untried ship, to recover the Lost Star.
He is nearing the end of his life, and for personal reasons wants to find the Lost Star before he dies, but fears that the Hooded Swan will beat him to it.
Grainger is separated from the rest and gets lost in the tunnels, eventually meeting up with some religious outcasts who have been shunned and who want to use him to help them seize the valuable cave and negotiate for their desires, which include escape to another world and validation.
Not knowing the situation, he refuses to return her to the local security officers chasing her, until Charlot sends the cops after him (including Grainger's friend Denton).
They fly to Chao Phrya, a world settled by a human generation ship, the Zodiac, whose descendants now believe it is their promised land, despite the presence of the Anacaona.
Charlot chooses Grainger and Eve to join the local search party, which consists of two humans, Max and Linda, and three Anacaona, Danel, Michael, and Merce.
They also meet the kidnapper, who reveals that the girl is in fact an Idris, artificially created by Charlot who wanted a bridge to help him understand the Anacaona.
He and Charlot hypothesize that the development of a mutational filter now controls evolution there, rather than the traditional natural selection, and it has nudged the environment into complete stability.
Firstly, there's a secret Caradoc battleship in orbit, just waiting for justification to land, and secondly, Johnny's found a hole which contains an interesting fossil... a large predator with claws and teeth, suggesting that the world was not always so peaceful.
While the authorities take him to the Hooded Swan (which contains facilities to hold him), Aegis, in a frustrated attempt to protest what they see as bias in Charlot's investigation, causes an explosion that destroys some of Caradoc's equipment.
Grainger is ordered to attempt a difficult landing on the surface of Leucifer V, as part of a rare diplomatic request by the Gallacellans, one of the oldest known starfaring races.
The planet's atmosphere is dense and extremely turbulent, and the Hooded Swan is expected to be the only ship that can land, get whatever the Gallacellans want, and lift again.
Grainger fails to land, and only barely manages to escape the atmosphere alive, and he categorically refuses to make another jump, even if it means reneging on his contract.
While Grainger is recovering from the first attempt, they receive a distress call and Grainger goes to intercept (taking along those already aboard: Eve, Johnny, Nick, and a Gallacellan intermediary named Ecdyon)... but it turns out the distress call is a ruse by a crazy man named Maslax who is convinced he has the ability to read minds.
The wind privately informs Grainger that, over a thousand years ago, the Gallacellans did use weapons, and had huge wars, before they decided to give up violence entirely.
Maslax takes Grainger, Eve, and Ecdyon in the Iron Maiden overland across the planet's surface to the location of the Gallacellan ship, only to find it is much bigger than expected, the size of a city.
He demonstrates without question that Maslax can't read minds, destroying his delusion and distracting him long enough to get the weapon and detonator away from him.
Upon leaving the bar they are approached by thugs, hired by Soulier, and though they evade them, Sam and Grainger realize that Caradoc is going to get him one way or the other unless he flees.
The wind informs Grainger that the universe itself is a mind, and that if it manages to understand them, or vice versa, they will cease to exist, and that the danger will be greater when they are out on their own between ships.
With no one else qualified to perform the role of engineer, Grainger takes the job and trusts that Eve will regain herself and be able to serve as pilot once attached to the relatively undamaged, and active, Hooded Swan.
When they make it home it is learned that in terms of subjective time outside the nebula, they have been gone for months, and Charlot has died of natural causes after proclaiming them all heroes.