Merchanter's Luck (Alliance-Union Universe) (1982)

An independent freighter is not much freedom if its captain cannot secure cargo, trustworthy crew and the next viable departure. Sandor’s precarious operation encounters the advantages of a large family-run merchant ship, making personal trust part of the business arrangement. Cherryh keeps trade and the people needed to carry it out close together. Choose it for a tense, relatively compact spacefaring story in which competence has to contend with a very thin margin for error.