A Bold New Novel of First Contact!

For eighteen months the Terran starship Hyperion hid in orbit and marveled at a world that should not exist. Far from the ravages of a war-torn galaxy, Phelspharia blossomed, populated by humans as varied as those on the Earth of old. But when the starship is discovered, the crew is forced to trust a war-weary officer whose knowledge of local languages may mean the difference between life and death.Now, breathing the air of a world he has come to know from afar, Lt. Commander Jason Roberts realizes how high the stakes are for Terrans and Phelspharians alike. Scarred inside and out by a past filled with treachery and carnage, Roberts must perform his duty to the Terran Star Force… and, if he can, do right by the people of Phelspharia.Courage, loyalty, grief, and love drive conflicting nations and cultures toward a reckoning, not merely with each other, but with a threat that could leave the galaxy itself in ashes.