Synopsis: Colonel Ray Longknife and Marine Captain Mary Rodrigo were once on opposite sides in an interstellar war. Now they're working together to keep the peace. When a bad space jump flings their starship thousands of light-years away from home, Longknife and Rodrigo make an amazing discovery: a planet inhabited by the descendants of a ship's crew, lost three hundred years earlier. As acting ambassador, Longknife is eager to welcome the planet's population back into the fold of humanity. But Rodrigo is suspicious. She senses that something is amiss under the planet's veneer of peace and prosperity. (adapted from the back cover of the first edition)