Synopsis: From the back cover of the DAW Books first edition: The lone survivor of a vanished solar system. Rusty was a spacer, one of the last of a dying breed. For with the creation of the Plex Net, mankind had succeeded in spanning the stars via instant matter transmission. However, Rusty, like all the people of his home planet, Roanoke, was something of a rebel, unwilling to succumb to the countless rules of humankind's interstellar bureaucracy, and equally unwilling to give up the sense of freedom and independence that traveling alone by starship gave him. But now, returning home to find his entire solar system gone, Rusty had no choice but to appeal to the very government bureaucracy he despised for help in tracking down his vanished planet. Yet in turning to Plex Central for aid, Rusty soon found his worst fears confirmed. Not only would no one listen to him, but it seemed as though there was a conspiracy of silence surrounding the disappearance of Roanoke. Rusty's quest seemed totally hopeless until he stumbled upon the one secret which the government would do anything to preserve - the knowledge that humankind had a long last been contacted by an alien race...