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| In 2270, William Ellison,
founder of the Children of Light, has led his followers on a pilgrimage
to the wreckage of a derilect alien space ship buried deep in the
asteroid belt beyond Mars. The mission succeeded. After
years of careful work, they made a discovery that they couldn't allow
outsiders to learn. To protect it, Ellison ordered a ritual
suicide. In their fervor and worship,
all members of the cult died, except for one who escaped.
Rescued
in 2273 floating in a crippled shuttle between planets, starved and
delerious,
the lone survivor tells of the secret that cult destroyed
itself
to protect. The solution to faster-than-light travel. While every nation on Earth argues over the rights to the claim, several major corporations put a bounty on the equations that no mercenary can refuse. Kestral Mannix, mercenary and vigilante, is at the forefront of the chase. Hunted for the price on her head, and aided by her cousin and a rookie navigator, she alone knows the secret to finding the derilect. But there are larger forces at work in the universe than greed, and she is chased by a shadow from her past that seems determined to claim her life before she can claim the prize. |