The Hugo Award–winning author returns to the Coyote Universe with this science fiction adventure about a disgraced pilot facing nature's deadliest force.

"The master of science fiction intrigue." —Washington Post

Dismissed from the Union Astronautica space fleet for conduct unbecoming, Jules Truffaut faces a bleak future as a grounded pilot on an Earth ruled by a social collectivist regime that denies individual freedoms. Hoping to start his life over on the colony world of Coyote, he emigrates through unorthodox channels, resulting in his immediate arrest.

Threatened with deportation, Jules has no choice but to accept an offer from billionaire Morgan Goldstein to transport him to Rho Coronae Borealis for a trade negotiation with the alien hjaad. But a cultural misunderstanding endangers overall relations between human and hjaad, forcing Goldstein to appease the aliens by undertaking a dangerous mission: one that requires Jules to fly across the galaxy to deliver a probe to a populated star system being destroyed by a black hole . . .

"This grand interstellar adventure exemplifies Hugo-winner Steel's skill with near-future tech . . . a rousing climax." —Publishers Weekly

"The closest thing the science fiction world now has to Robert A. Heinlein." —SFRevu