Before Owen Deathstalker, there was the Twilight of the Empire . . .

Ghostworld. Unseeli. A dead world, at least since the Ashrai Rebellion ten years before. A world of metal trees crucial to the Empire, as crucial as Captain John Silence will one day be to the Empress. But not now. Silence botched the Empire's response to the Rebellion, and bears the burden for a world wiped clean of all life, save its precious metal trees. Now, Base Thirteen has gone silent, cut itself off from the Empire, and stopped its crucial shipments. Silence has to find out why, and clean up his mess, aided by the ESPer Diane Vertue and Investigator Frost. Behind each locked door on Base Thirteen, mystery and menace await.