Chief Justice Alba Espina never expected to see her home system again. But the return of the diplomatic mission survivors to the Joias system may not be as peaceful as they'd hoped. Alba's political rival, General Cavaco, has used her absence to stoke citizens' fears and prejudices of an alien invasion - and he's gunning for a war that Alba knows he can't win. Between Cavaco's political machinations, suspicious aliens, and an uprising in the Rim Moutains, Alba, Savina, and the others will face their biggest challenge yet: preventing the utter destruction of the Joias System. In the meantime, Aran has problems of his own: he has the cure to his best friend's fatal illness, but he can't implement it without Joias technology. He's got to figure out a way to keep his unconscious best friend alive until they reach Villa Nova do Sol, keep his pet land-devil from killing everyone who looks at him sideways, and keep the charak space-parasite from completing a murderous take-over of the raiders' minds. Oh, and keep the raiders from slaughtering their way through the Joias system anyway.