Synopsis: From the back cover of the DAW first edition: "Cold sleep had given Earth the stars, but at what price? Filled with the hope of a new life on a new world, many a voyager had entered the cryo-containers aboard the titanic starships sent to populate Jayvee 9, Earth's lone far-flung colony. For some that hope was fulfilled, for others there was no awakening at journey's end. And for those like ex-marshal Walker, a man permanently scarred by the madness and loneliness of seven years of cold sleep, the sole way to find peace was in space itself, flying the starways as a solitary mining pilot. With the empathic alien Nis as his only companion, Walker combed the giant asteroid rings near Jayvee, searching for ore and returning periodically to his base at Hephaestus Station. It might not have been much of a life, but for Walker it was enough. But the discovery of a massive derelict, the sleeper-ship E.S.S. Republic, found floating in the debris of Ring Belt 3 signaled an end to Walker's personal seclusion. Assigned to investigate this wreck which had been lost for more than a century, Walker and a team of anthropologists led by the renowned Dr. Elaine Bartlett, were about to confront an alien presence far more terrifying than Walker's most shocking cold-sleep nightmares!"