Ace, 1989, 236 p.

The hero of this novel has taken the name Cargo. He is a veteran of the conflict between the Collegium and its breakaway republic Cardia, flying spacecraft called Kraits in the interstellar medium known as exo. Military personnel refer to such flying as “dancing vac.” Cargo wishes to change to the new batwings, silent stealthcraft made for slipping unnoticed from exo to sky.

As part of a ship’s personnel and because they are able to access different aspects of the maze – a kind of computer reality helping to direct a ship’s movements – aliens called Akhaid partner human pilots. Cargo’s Akhaid partner is named Ghoster.

A protégé of the well-known Bishop Mirabeau, Cargo is suspect, not least to his new batwing group’s CO, Commander Fourways. The fact that in one of his Krait sorties Cargo’s friend Two Bits was killed (went to the Wall) and that Cargo was investigated regarding the circumstances doesn’t help, nor does the fact of his birthplace in Cardia territory.

Secretly the Bishop wishes to broker peace between the Collegium and Cardia but there are obstacles to this. Not least the probable presence of a spy in Cargo’s group. An expedition into Cardia space makes it evident that Cardia has a craft similar to the batwing. Given Cargo’s background he is part of the company delegated to land on Marcander to steal it. The eventual success of this mission and that Cargo can fly the thing means that Cardia’s batwing has the same design as the Collegium’s. The identity of the actual spy (or spies!) I’ll leave to other readers.

One strange aspect of this book is that Lewitt has given Cargo Gypsy/Romany heritage. While she acknowledges the prejudice his people suffer from (even in this 1989 future) she still portrays them in general as thieves, which reads oddly these days.

Cyberstealth is a pretty standard piece of military SF but I have enjoyed previous books by Lewitt more than this one and I can’t quite put my finger on why unless it was that there was a fair bit of exposition and information dumping.

Pedant’s corner:- cheepo (cheapo,) “‘Didn’t like if at all’” (like it at all,) “‘We were pulling more gees than I want to remember’” (in space, can you pull gees?) Fourways’ (many times. Fourways is a person; Fourways’s,) “had made their presence know” (known,) “credited others as being s guileless as himself” (credited others with being as guileless,) Marcus Arelis’ (Marcus Aurelius, and the possessive should be s’s,) disection (dissection,) “the footpaths lead past” (led past,) “serious breech in security” (breach,) “there were no separation of any kind” (there was no separation,) “hung herself” (hanged,) anomolies (anomalies: and later, anomoly [anomaly],) “to work out the principals of “ (principles of,) “with it’s heavy carved furniture” (its,) hiccoughs (hiccups,) “took the annies for Cargo’s hand” (took the annies from Cargo’s hand,) maleable (malleable,) “he couldn’t spend anymore [time] being idle” (spend any more,) “the Cardia formation was going lose” (loose?) “where the images of Ste Maries-de-la-Mer was imprinted in his palm” (where the image,) “in the vague hopes” (hope.)