Aptitude testing leads a young man to a job on a clunky old ship, not one of the fancy new shiny commercial fancy pants variety.

Through his apprenticeship he is forced to learn quickly, and spaceship maintenance and travel is not all.

They discover a planet with aliens, alien goodies, have to fend off nogoodniks, and all that sort of fun stuff.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/01... ( )

I think this was the first Norton I ever read, which is just as well, as it’s the first of a trilogy involving the same set of characters. My library only had this one and the third one, and it wasn’t until years later that I managed to get hold of the middle one. All the standard Norton elements are there – eerie alien ruins, a plot by rogue elements, gawky kid finding his way. ( )