In another time and place, an enormous society of worlds and species with common interests in profitable financial exchange has somehow survived hundreds of years of terrorist threats and war. But now as the battles end, the society faces its greatest threat: an alliance of seven poor planets colonized by their outcasts.

These outcasts are not terrorists or warriors. They have no armed forces powerful enough to subdue worlds. Their only weapon is their mysterious ability to produce astonishing quantities of gold and platinum--two tangible commodities that support all interstellar...