The new HG Rickover Shipyard in the asteroid belt was designed to build humanity's first interstellar colonization ships. Construction of the Voyager III was just underway when the visitors first appeared in the constellation Orion, approaching the solar system from the galactic rim. What humanity didn't know was that they were about to take center stage in a multi-billion year conflict between two races that originated in the Andromeda Galaxy and had now poured over into the Milky Way. Sted Richardson had been pushing hard to lead that first interstellar mission, but his plans were cut short...