Vengeance was in the humid night air of the Louisiana bayou, but it wasn't the kind Charlie Buck wanted.

Before them, lit by the glowing coals of the campfire and stark light of the full moon, three men lay asleep. A fourth man, sitting with a rifle propped over his shoulder, was asleep too. Charlie glanced over at his companion, the strange Voodoo doctor he had met just before the attack. The man's black torso was bare except for the large snake curled around his neck.

Despite the heat, Charlie shivered. All he wanted was to find was his father's murderer. But it was complicated....

As the assassin's hand arched for his throw, Janzene cocked and fired his Colt in a smooth, practiced motion. Silver spinning objects spun from the man's hand, shooting through the air toward Janzene. At the same time, the assassin's body was hurled backward by the force of Janzene's bullet. The man staggered and fell, dead as he hit the floor.

Janzene threw off his blanket and leaped to his feet, reaching the body shortly after it fell. A pool of blood was forming on the man's garment. Janzene looked at his assailant. Of all the people to attack him, he had expected least of all a...

Before breaking his lunar orbit, Snell reviewed his mission instructions: 1. Locate the lost Observer ship and salvage or destroy it. 2. Destroy any Syssphinx attempt to communicate with its home base. If possible, discover details about the Syssphinx race. 3. Find and communicate with the Lorelei. The first directive would be simple. As for the second one, either the Dark ship was destroyed or if not, so he had almost no chance to complete the directive. The Dark ships and their Syssphinx crews were the sworn enemies of all other life forms in the universe. No one really understood their...