Synopsis: All Secrets Aside

On Endis, a honor-bound, military backwater Imperium, a young man and a young woman meet late one night at a coffee shop just off campus. She is the nightshift. He needs some coffee and a quiet place to think. It’s not so much love at first sight as a meeting of minds. And while he might be the Emperor of these three planets she is the one with the secrets. And all she wants to know is, is there such a thing as trust without fear, or is this all just one big exercise in futility?

On Fina the most vulnerable are the best protected and the strongest are then the most vulnerable. To gain any leverage between Houses a hostage must be taken from the Protected of the other House. For the armed men of Endis the whole idea is repugnant, but the needs of the Imperium out-weight the discomfort of dishonor. The medically fragile daughter of the Minister Dornan is what the Imperium needs. Miss Dornan is who they take. But what happens when the kidnappers have no desire to be anything of the sort. And what happens when, in the end, she wants to stay, but the Emperor has just traded her back for the concessions they so desperately needed?

On Koorsoni science trumps all and they, of course, trump any mere humans in the galaxy. Lord Arlen was the very best officer Sergeant Ven knew in the Endien Armed Forces, a man synonymous with “trustworthy” in his mind. When his Koorson’ai captors began to experiment on him, trying to turn him into the perfect soldier Ven had to make a very difficult choice indeed. And when his people rescued him, then fired him for “suspicious modifications” Lord Arlen hired him on as one of his personal armsmen on the basis of his record alone. Whoever knew there was such a thing as too loyal?