Deepdrive — Alexander Jablokov

In the twenty-first-century, eleven extraterrestrial races have settled our solar system, sometimes interacting with human beings, sometimes ignoring them altogether in pursuit of their own enigmatic ends. They reached human space with faster-than-light drives--deepdrives--designed to self-destruct after use. Without deepdrives of their own, humans have no way to cross the vast, interstellar gulf, or to compete as equals in the galactic community.

But then a renegade alien crashes on Venus and a ragtag group of mer, cenaries determines to break him out and learn his secrets for themselves--maybe even the secret of the deepdrive. But in a search for the deceptive, nothing is as it seems, no one exactly who--or what--they appear to be. There are no easy answers, only layer upon layer of secrets and lies. And as events set in motion long ago and far away begin to ripple into human space, it is no longer even clear who are the hunters, and who the hunted.