Synopsis: Earth is a world ruled by a vast, Japanese-dominated economic empire,. It is a planet which having exhausted many of its natural resources, sends out government sanctioned probe expeditions to seek new resources with which to fuel the survival of the human race. And it is a place where past and present are constantly being rewritten through the efforts of the historians, talented men and women who fictionalize actual events according to government dictates. But So Pak, son of Earth's finest Historian, seeks another path, the path of "freedom". And so he has worked for years to put together a probe expedition aboard the starship Bushido. With and international and very mismatched crew composed of both malcontents and government "moles", he spaces for the distant world of Zeta Reticuli, where years earlier two mining expeditions - one Japanese, the other Korean - met with a mysterious end. So Pak is determined to uncover the truth behind this tragedy - but someone else seems equally determined that neither So Pak nor the Bushido will ever return to Earth! (from the back cover of the DAW Books first edition)