Synopsis: Crisis in the 'net: Admiral Loren Cantrell is already caught on a power-play tightrope between bigoted Spacers and stubborn planetary Reconstructionists. Now a new crisis arises: something is threatening the Communications Network that links the star colonies. It is a mystery Cantrell must solve. Her only clue lead to HuteNamid, a Recon world of hostile Native Americans. Here a conspiracy is run by Cantrell's ex-lover, a man believed dead; a new science has been invented by a disgraced practical joker who once crashed a galactic database; and a psychotic rebel warrior has found the was to touch a god. The one person who can help Cantrell is Stephen Ridenour, a neurotic boy genius who risks death and madness... for the key to saving the 'Net lies in the deeper shadows of Stephen's lost past - and hidden soul. (from the back cover of the Warner Books first edition)