The war is over. Life resumes. Careers advance. Robert and Claire have no idea that their next assignment on the IMS Atlanta could be their last. It’s a time of peace, after all. But an anomaly on a colony planet has Robert sending Claire to the surface to investigate. What she discovers brings the dark memories of battle back to every war veteran on their ship.
Back on Mars, Mason and Priya have put the memories of war behind them as they live and work at the quasi-secret Naval Interspecies Research Institute base on Mars. Their two teenage sons have grown up among Naldím individuals who were captured during the war. But at NIRI, there is no war and there are no enemies… until some high school students follow the Steele boys home one day and inadvertently spot a pair of Naldím. Can the NIRI people – Humans and Naldím – calm the rising panic in the nearby town, or will a new war break out over a dozen aliens living on the Human home world?
