Once upon a time there was a boy named David, who slew a terrible foe… David Birkenhead might have been only twelve years old, but his entire life was already laid out for him. First his father was supposed to teach him how to run a starship's engine room. Then, when the time came, he'd take over the job himself. This was the way of things for slavebunnies like David; luxuries like career-choices were reserved for humans only. Not that David was complaining—compared to the farmbunnies or domestic-servant rabbits, he had it made. There was even a pretty doe waiting for him in the wings. Then the ships of the Boyen Emperor arrived on David's homeworld and nothing could ever be the same again. Great Houses of Nobility would contest for power, kingdoms would teeter on the edge of oblivion… …and out of the resulting vortex young David would bring peace and justice to a thousand worlds.

For centuries noble houses have struggled with the problem of what to do with their younger, non-inheriting sons. It's even tougher when one of these younger sons is a Rabbit and therefore by definition a former slave. In this second volume of the David Birkenhead series, our young hero has been adopted into the powerful House of Marcus. But... what can be done with a former slave-boy who's earned his kingdom's highest award for bravery, but who also can't shed his Rabbithood no matter how hard he tries? Send him to the Naval Academy, of course, where he must battle loneliness and prejudice as well as the rigors of military discipline. David's courage has already been proven beyond question, and it is said that the hottest furnaces produce the finest steel. yet... how can a mere Rabbit survive such pressure? Will David crack? Or will he stand taller and prouder than ever, winning great victories for his kingdom and his fellow slave-species along the way?

In this third volume of the David Birkenhead series, David Birkenhead, former slave and recent Academy graduate, finds himself defending a deserted outpost against overwhelming odds. Following a rabbit into a brier-patch isn't a good idea, however, and David has salvaged weapons, a fortified position, and a crew of loyal but untrained slavebunnies, pitted against the full might of the Empire. "Whatever you do, please, don't throw me in that brier patch!" Rabbits have been outwitting their enemies for as long as rabbits have had enemies, and that's a very long time indeed. But few bunnies have ever found themselves in as tight as a spot as recent Academy-graduate David Birkenhead, assigned to Graves Registration work and trapped far behind enemy lines by the unexpected outbreak of war. Nor have many lapines been forced to make-do with such a miserable brier patch—the highly strategic (and aptly-named) Zombie Station, already twice-crushed by Imperial forces and now garrisoned only by rotting corpses. David's superior officers are incompetent or worse. The guns don't work. His only effective troops are illiterate slavebunnies. No one would reasonably expect an officer in his position to hold out against a major Imperial offensive for as long as five minutes. But, as the universe is about to learn, there aren't any other officers like David Birkenhead.

"We have not yet begun to fight!" John Paul Jones once declared not long before snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. But even the immortal Captain Jones might've flinched at the prospect of a months-long odyssey through the heart of Imperial space in command of a thin-skinned converted merchantman. In this fourth volume of the "David Birkenhead" series, the newly-promoted Commander Birkenhead is forced to zig when he should've zagged and finds himself in what any lesser officer might well consider a hopeless situation. Cut off from all contact with friendly forces, short on supplies and in command of a ship that most of the navy's brasshats consider a waste of resources, the Hero of Zombie Station must once again make do with what he has rather than what he might wish for. This time, in so doing he will shake the Empire to the core.

The king is dead! Long live the king! David Birkenhead never expected that his adopted brother James would have the throne handed to him on a silver platter. But even David, veteran of some of the most brutal and merciless battles ever fought, is shocked at the layers upon layers of intrigue and double-dealing that he finds upon his return to the capital world. Warfare, David has learned, is a despicable waste of lives and resources. Yet… Might politics be even worse? James must be crowned, or all the progress that has recently been made towards a peaceful, just universe will be cast away and lost forever. In warfare, the ends can and quite often do justify the means. Can the same be said of politics? And when it's all over and done, will David ever be able to look himself in the mirror again?

"War is cruelty," General William Tecumseh Sherman famously asserted. "There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." David Birkenhead is not by nature a cruel Rabbit. Yet he's been assigned one of the most miserable missions an officer can ever receive—to bring two renegade Houses of Nobility back into the fold, by force if necessary. And he's in a terrible hurry as well; the Imperials are certain to strike again at any moment. Will David once again manage to make do with what he has instead of what he might wish for and somehow prevent a civil war and Royal catastrophe? Even if he has to face the entire Imperial Fleet along the way?

By now David Birkenhead has all but defeated the Boyen Emperor, whose strength is but a shadow of what it was before the Battle of Wilkes Prime. His fleet has been shattered and with it his dreams of conquest. Yet the Emperor and his court fight desperately on, and the price of invading Imperious Prime remains too terrible to contemplate. Is there another, less-bloody way of ending the war besides invasion? And if so… …what will it cost David personally? Should anyone, anywhere be expected to pay such a price?