Books like Derelict for Trade by Andre Norton

After a daring rescue that saves thousands, the crew of the Solar Queen gains celebrity status and attempts to profit from the trade opportunities that follow. Their plans are derailed when a derelict ship, laden with fuel, forces them into a treacherous encounter with a deserted vessel that nearly crashes them into disaster. A desperate interstellar journey leads the crew to a beautiful, yet unsettling, space habitat shared by humans, Kanddoyd, and Shver. There, bureaucratic entities and other species complicate the Solar Queen’s claims to the derelict, setting the stage for conflict. What begins as an opportunistic stop becomes a series of perilous misadventures as an alien stowaway, an intergalactic pirate gang, and an ultraviolent alien clan threaten the crew’s survival and their hopes for a successful trade run.

First publish date: 1997