An unstable utopia... The nine-world Arcturian Confederation have imposed five centuries of peace across more than five hundred human colonies. If orthodynamics, the technology behind faster than light travel, fell into the wrong hands, this utopia could end in a catastrophic interstellar war. The Arcturian Space Fleet grew old and inflexible waiting for the wars that never came. Now two unscrupulous adventurers believe it would be easy prey. They plan to take over a recently colonised planet, and they don't care how many colonists they kill. One small and seemingly fragile woman stands between them and success. A woman with a core of pure steel. Space Fleet's Jane Gould alone can save the colonists, but at what personal cost?

(Volume 2 of 2, this book concludes the story which began in Run From The Stars.) On the edge of interstellar war... For five centuries the nine-world Arcturian Confederation have imposed an uneasy peace across more than five hundred human colonies This utopia could end in a catastrophic interstellar war if orthodynamics, the technology behind faster than light travel, fell into the wrong hands. The Arcturian Confederate Space Fleet, grown old and inflexible after five hundred years of preparing for the wars that never came, seems no match for two adventurers who will stop at nothing to seize the technology for themselves. Not even starting an interstellar war that will cost billions of lives. One woman, small, seemingly fragile, torn apart by personal tragedy, alone opposes them. A woman with a core of pure steel. Space Fleet's Jane Gould stands between the human race and annihilation, but can she face the horrors that she finds?