Ambassador Judith Woeberry didn't know it when she landed on Zorkon, but she has only 14 days to stop a war. Already opposing planetary groups have made four attempts to kill her as she searches to locate the secretive Conundrums, a never-before-seen race that supplies the energy crystals used to fuel the entire Solar One space fleet. She'd come to Zorkon to discover why delivery of the energy crystals had stopped. She soon finds out that the supply problem is more sinister than she realized. It's a coordinated attack by three planetary factions that have joined forces to control the energy crystals and seek total solar domination. She never expected members of her security team to try to kill her, so she must enlist the aid of Antonio Albero and his brother Arc, third-generation Zorkons. The three must battle a well-armed military force and travel deep inside the dreaded unstable ZIP energy field, which covers a third of the planet, to locate the secretive Conundrums. If the enemy finds them first, they will have the supremacy for planetary-wide domination. The ambassador also learns that ZIP might move at any time and possibly destroy much of the planet. Everything is against them in this life-and-death race to see who will locate the Conundrums first. And, if they do find them, do the Conundrums even want to be found?