Shockball

From the back cover of the Roc first edition: "Beginning in StarDoc - S. L. Viehl's smart, savvy, surgeon Cherijo Torin has ventured across the universe in and out of danger and love, driven by two great forces - her sworn duty to heal the sick, and her constant fear of the demented man who created her... Having freed herself from Hsktskt slave traders, Cherijo and her husband, Duncan, wanted to start looking for a nice quiet part of the universe where Cherijo's Creator, Joseph Grey, wouldn't find them. But Joseph Grey Veil never gives up... Now the newlyweds are living underground with the help of a renegade band of alien-human half-breeds. But when Duncan is forced into their deadly shockball games, and Cherijo is used to keep the players healthy, safety becomes its own kind of imprisonment, and Cherijo learns she cannot merely run from her part - she must destroy it..."