What is the definition of strength? At what point is there nothing more to learn than the limits of endurance? When is darkness no longer contrast to light but a suffocation, and how close to that line can a person walk before she risks her soul? This tenth anniversary edition of the original collection features all new illustrations. Ten years after she graduated from the Fleet Academe at Terracentrus, Alysha Forrest was captain of the battlecruiser UAV Stardancer with more honor to her name than any other officer her age. But before that dawn there was a night, and it is in the darkness that souls are made...or broken. Book contains scenes of violence and abuse. This book is a prequel to the Alysha Forrest series, which starts with Second.

Previous edition for this ASIN found here Ensign Taylitha Basil didn't know what to expect at her first officer training retreat. Hiking up a mountain? She's never hiked. Canoeing back down it at the end? She's not a great swimmer. Dealing with an obnoxious peer who declared himself leader of their expedition? Definitely not in her plan. Meeting the woman who'd become her captain and friend for years to come? Bring it on.

Alysha Forrest is looking forward to her assignment as the Songlance's newest lieutenant, particularly when it gets her placed as the liaison to the ship's water environment crewmembers. Interfacing with the mermaid-like Naysha and the alien Platies who serve as the ship's navigators is an exhilarating experience, and all the other officers on the crew are eager to welcome her into the fold... all of them, except one. Mike Beringwaite, the overbearing ensign who ruined their leadership retreat years earlier, has somehow made lieutenant too. When a routine problem in the water environment throws them together, Alysha has to decide how willing she is to forgive him for what he did, whether she can work with him again, and most importantly, if she can trust him—with her life. The disaster at the leadership retreat is nothing to the one they have to handle now. If they can.... (Prequel) Alysha's Fall 1. Second 2. Who is Willing 3. Sword of the Alliance 4. Either Side of the Strand

When the UAV Scattersky answers a distress call, their captain is expecting a routine rescue operation and dispatches his first commander, Alysha Forrest, to manage the transfer of personnel. But naturally, things are never as easy as they seem on the surface....

War is a serious violation of the Alliance's colony charters, so when the Stardancer is sent to investigate rumors of a conflict on the distant colony of Gledig, they're not expecting to be mired in a web of deceit, treachery, and tragedy... one involving not just the colony, but pirates and a missing Fleet officer. Even worse, the evidence suggests Fleet itself might have had a hand in creating the situation about to erupt on the ground. But while the conflict might have been decades in the making, time is running out for Gledig, and only Fleet can save the colony from the culmination of the forces working against it now. The fate of a world hangs in the balance. Can the crew of the Stardancer redeem the honor of the Fleet... before it's too late? STARDANCER READING ORDER 0. (Prequel) Alysha's Fall 1. Second 2. Who is Willing 3. Sword of the Alliance 4. Either Side of the Strand

When a routine mapping expedition uncovers what looks like ruins on the planet Theth-129, the crew of the Stardancer is thrilled to have something more exciting to do than catalogue worlds only a terraformer could love. Their trip to the world’s surface confirms their wildest hopes: their ruins really were made by natives and abandoned long ago, a find of incredible significance. But there’s more to this world than an obelisk, a set of painted caves, and a mysterious shoreline. When the sea claims one of the ‘Dancer’s senior officers, their investigation reveals that the lost civilization might not be quite so lost after all. Alysha Forrest and the crew of the Stardancer have no idea that their way of life is on trial. But before it’s over, they’ll be asked to prove themselves, and the fate of an entire world is resting on the outcome.... This first full-length novel in the Alysha Forrest series stands on its own, or can be read as part of the series (beginning with Alysha's Fall). It is part of the same universe (the Pelted) as Earthrise and Mindtouch.

After ferrying supplies to thirty-nine space stations, First Commander Taylitha Basil of the UAV Stardancer is ready to move on to something less dull... but it turns out the station commander at their final stop is a great sword-fighter, funny, handsome, interesting... ...and also human, one of the species that engineered her own race long ago. What do you feel about the people who played God?

Captain Alysha Forrest is taking advantage of leave to do a little holiday shopping at the largest mall in the Alliance's summer capital... when a little boy gets into a little trouble. A holiday feel-good story from the Pelted universe.