They call them the "rat-catchers." They're the crew of the spaceship Daedalus, which an economically destitute Earth has dispatched on a mission to re-establish contact with its far-flung, long-lost space colonies. Alex Alexander, ship's biologist, must help solve the mysteries of human and alien ecosystems that he encounters light-years from home. The planet Floria initially appears to be one of the few Earth colonies that's actually prospered since its initial settlement. But underneath the surface of the society, the "Planners" keep a strict, repressive rule over the Florians, while the police are apparently attempting to assert their own authority. But is either group actually what they seem? Daedalus Mission, Book One.

Book 2 of the series, which also The Florians (1976); Wildeblood's Empire (1977); The City of the Sun (1978); Balance of Power (1979); The Paradox of the Sets (1979).

Paperback original. #3 in the "Daedalus Mission" series, which also includes The Florians (1976); Critical Threshold (1977); The City of the Sun (1978); Balance of Power (1979); The Paradox of the Sets (1979).

Book by Brian M. Stableford

"The fifth landing of the Daedalus mission."

The final contact made by the Daedalus Mission begins badly, even before the ship makes a hard landing in the middle of nowhere. The situation of the colony doesn't seem to make any sense, and neither does the situation of the indigenous aliens—the Sets—that have helped the colony survive and thrive. Alex Alexander doesn't take long to work out a hypothesis that might explain the mystery—a hypothesis that the people on the ground have already worked out for themselves—and he's fortunate enough to fall in with a colonist who's obsessively determined to prove the hypothesis. Unfortunately, the quest seems likely to become so dangerous that both of them might die trying—and there's too much at stake not to take it to the very limit of possibility, no matter what the cost. The stunning conclusion (Book Six) of The Daedalus Mission series.