Marine hovercraft gunner Zack Lynton is pulled from the front lines and granted emergency leave to return to his home planet and settle affairs after the sudden and mysterious death of Marvin Pangbourne, his uncle and sole-remaining relative... Uncle Marv managed to squander most of his late wife's fortune dabbling in antiquities but he does leave Zack the Capri, a somewhat modified, fifty-year-old spaceship. In an effort to salvage something from the financial wreckage his uncle left behind, Zack hires a pilot and heads to the Central Planets intending to sell the ship... He immediately falls headlong into the tangled nest of affairs that led to his uncle's murder. The source of the trouble seems to be an artifact that Marv had recently purchased—a small, unassuming pyramid supposedly taken from somewhere in the infamous Sol System, one of the most dangerous places in all Human space... On route to the Central Planets, Zack's pilot turns out to be more than just a pilot and he finds out that some extremely ruthless people, including the Soviets and a shadowy, unknown foreign government, are obsessed with Marv's artifact and will stop at nothing to get it... In the meantime, three percent of the human race is having periodic and very disturbing dreams concerning the future of all Mankind. Could Marv's artifact be involved somehow? As matters spin out of control, Zack is ordered to provide protection for an archeological expedition headed into the lawless wasteland of the Sol System in search of the artifact's origin and true purpose...

The purpose of the ancient, enigmatic Deimos Artifact has been discovered - the small, tetrahedron-shaped construct is Humanity's key to access the giant Galactic Sentinel Network... Activation of their Sentinel signaling device presents Mankind with an unprecedented opportunity - an invitation to join the Grand Amalgamation of Galactic Civilizations, an interstellar organization representing over five-hundred different intelligent species... Citizenship requirements are simple: Humanity needs to establish a peaceful relationship with their closest galactic neighbors, the Hordea, a peculiar race of intelligent plants... And they have to put a stop to the endless internal wars which have plagued the species since inception... The downside? Failure to achieve citizenship places Mankind at the mercy of the Custodians, a brutal and ruthless Amalgamation archrival, who've already enslaved over a hundred "undesirable" species... Attempting to fulfill the Amalgamation's membership requirements, Zack, Ariane, and the rest of the Deimos expedition must voyage to the far reaches of Human space, including a perilous foray down to the surface of the ravaged and lawless planet Earth itself... Opposing them at every step are the Custodians who, with the assistance of greedy, traitorous Humans, are covertly doing all in their power to ensure Humanity's bid for citizenship will end in failure... In the meantime, there is compelling evidence that another ancient artifact awaits discovery...

Mankind has recently been presented with an unprecedented opportunity - an invitation to join the Grand Amalgamation of Galactic Civilizations, an interstellar organization representing over five-hundred different intelligent species... The downside? Failure to achieve citizenship places Mankind at the mercy of the Custodians, a brutal and ruthless Amalgamation archrival, who've already enslaved over a hundred "undesirable" species... Citizenship requirements are simple: Humanity needs to establish a peaceful relationship with their closest galactic neighbors, the Hordea, a peculiar race of intelligent plants, and they have to put a stop to the endless internal wars which have plagued the species since inception... On the surface, things seem to have gotten off to a good start. The Human race is about to establish formal diplomatic ties with their Hordean neighbors, and a general cease fire has taken effect throughout all of Human space... Behind the scenes, however, all is not well... Peace negotiations among the various Human governments continue to teeter precariously on the edge of failure... Upon arrival in Hordean space, the Human diplomatic team is greeted by a nasty surprise... The government of New Belgrade, in Soviet space, has been infiltrated by Custodians. With the assistance of greedy, traitorous Humans, the foul creatures are planning a takeover... Could the Belgrade takeover mark the beginning of an all-out war the Amalgamation itself? To complicate matters further, recent visions and ancient legends hint that another Archeon artifact, of unknown purpose but larger than any ever found, awaits discovery in the ravaged and lawless Sol system...