Publisher's Synopsis
Crankie Williams was born as Clarence Allain, but as a baby his mother called him Crankie because, well, he was a cranky baby, so the name stuck. On his way home from school, Crankie met with Commander Illian who was instructed by the emperor to guide and tutor him through his young life, until he understood he had a higher purpose in the future. During his junior as well as senior school days he got up to all sorts of tricks and became a real thorn in the principal's flesh, so much so that the principal, after Crankie decided to become an entrepreneur and began, with his brother and his friend's help, to go into space and sign contracts with both the Arabs of the planet Murka and the Chinese of the planet Manchuria. The principal eventually met with the Chief of Police to inform him of his suspicions that Crankie was involved in criminal activities.
With the help of his brother, Crankie meets up with Alexei who was to become one of his best friends. The two of them plan raids in the Heshny galaxy and hijacked some Heshnian freight ships. When they, unbeknown to them, hijacked a brand new super ship belonging to the powerful Andromedans they were overjoyed, but when they eventually realised what they had done Crankie ordered the new ship to be hidden until they could decide what to do with it. The Andromedans blamed the Milky Way pirates for stealing their ship and this put a huge strain on relations between the two galaxies. There was big trouble in the Milky Way galaxy and the Galactic Council was in uproar, giving the Police Chief as well as GASS (Galactic Security Service) instructions to find the culprits at all cost! Crankie, through a clever scheme, managed to recover the new ship and take it back to the Andromedans, thereby earning the title of Universal Hero!
Crankie decided to start a new venture for the business empire he was developing. He restructured his management team and made plans to construct motels all over the Milky Way galaxy. These motels would be called Star Havens and eventually, after they were built and commissioned, they catered not only for weary travellers in pleasure cruises, they also afforded rest and recuperation for the fleet officers and men. The problem came when the pirates also began using the facilities and it was passively agreed by all that Star Havens would also be 'Safe-Havens'. No pirates would attack any passenger of cargo ships they were with at the havens and the fleet would not attack or hunt any pirates until they had a chance to get safely away.
Through the influence of the emperor, Crankie met up with Chiefs Running Water and Running Bear of the Lacota Sioux tribe and it was decided to move all those people, who decided for themselves if they wanted to go, to a new mysterious planet called New Maka. Crankie got involved in some shady underworld activities and, although it was hugely successful for a long time, he eventually got caught red-handed and much to the joy of the Police Chief, was locked up. The Police Chief decided to have Crankie shipped out in a fleet supply ship, with strict orders that for the rest of his life he was never to set foot on any planet again.
