Suspenseful military space fleet adventure and hard science fiction come together in this series of future space colonization in the Alpha Centauri star system. With a successful test of his new ship behind him, Van Wert sets out to explore a secret base that reveals a spy ring operating in the fleet’s backyard, and sends the crew in an unexpected direction. Meanwhile, the hideous nature of the insurgency is revealed as the Malabar passengers and crew are pressed into forced labor on a remote planet, or find themselves the victims of a sordid entertainment for the cabal masters.