The Union is gone. Interstellar travel is no longer safe. Enter ex-Union Navy Officer Cliff Rawlins.



More than four years after being wrongfully stripped of his rank and decorations in a court-martial stacked against him, ex-Union Navy Officer Cliff Rawlins suddenly finds himself a free man.



The galaxy to which he returns, however, is changing.



The Union of Free Planets is on the verge of dissolving. Many of the shadowy political players working behind the scenes to end the Union are the same people who sent Cliff away. Yet, in the coming political upheaval, Cliff glimpses an opportunity.



For centuries, people have relied upon the Union Navy to act as the policeman of the shipping lanes. With the end of the Union will come the end of the navy. Interstellar commerce is about to become fraught with danger.



Cliff has a way to use his expertise to provide secure transport across interstellar space. A mercenary navy to defend settled space and get rich doing it. After all, he deserves it for what he went through.



But there are enemies old and new who want him to fail. And this time, they want him dead . . .