Michelle Levigne, Author

Bain and Lin meet up with Ranger Captain Gilmore again. Gil has an important mission for Sunsinger's crew: helping test a new device to protect ships from the alien Mashrami. The only problem is, Lin has to get Sunsinger very close to the aliens to test it!

Bain and Lin meet up with Sister High Scholar Marnya, a member of the Order of Kilvordi - the Church scholars and scientists who brought civilization back from the destruction of the Downfall and took Humans back into space. Marnya needs their help on a very important mission: She needs to travel in disguise, to see if the conditions on the colony worlds match the reports that she receives. Plus, someone is trying to kill members of the Order, and Marnya is the most important target of all. Bain's dreams of having the power and resources to help the helpless come a little closer to reality as he learns from Marnya and her bodyguard, Jax.

Sunsinger's crew joins the Rangers on a mission of mercy where time is the enemy -- along with a plague created by the alien Mashrami. Bain and Lin help to deliver medicine to hopefully prevent and cure the plague. When they come to a planet where the colonists are uncooperative, they start to unearth secrets better left buried.

It was the chance of a lifetime, to visit Centralis, home of the Commonwealth Council and the Commonwealth Upper University. While Lin testified about Sunsinger's visit to the Mashrami home planet, Bain explored the grounds of the university with his new friend, Gorgi Cole.

Then a researcher was attacked, his laboratory ransacked and deadly cultures stolen. With the possibility of a plague being loosed under the domes of Centralis, Bain and Gorgi knew they had to help.

But it could cost them their lives.