Rachel Haversian has always known that the Nasilene were a threat, but they seem to be a distant danger in the isolated village where she works as a healer. That changes all too soon when for reasons unknown, she's kidnapped by lackeys of the Nasilene-feudal lords made mighty by their war-magic and their countless servants and slaves-so powerful that their only real rivals are each other. Fortunately, she's freed from her captors, but when she wakes up, she's unsure if her situation has gotten better or worse. She's injured, and there's a mysterious young man tending to her wounds. She learns...

Rab's got a problem. Well, he's got several. It's not just that he's living outside human space and that humanity's defenses keep him there. It's not that he's a Ranger for the Frontier Corps, a more or less unsupported soldier with few resources and no backup. It's not even that Sector 12 is filled with a multitude of alien races that don't recognize his authority and so view him as a criminal or, worse, an enemy. No, Rab can deal with all this. He's dealt with it for a while. His real problems arrive when a group of Frontier Corps Marines gets blasted into Sector 12 during an unsuccessful...