The action starts right from the first page of the first chapter in this one and then it continues to go all over the place. You’d think that Peacemaker Van Tudor and his crew of the Fafnir would get tired of always finding themselves being shot at, ambushed or involved in every evil scheme the bad guys can come up. But no, they haven’t decided to quit yet, far from it.
Still, they do have time to do some improvements to their ship, the Fafnir. Rab, Netty-=, and Perry were sent back to Anvil Dark (HQ for the Peacemaker Guild) to get the repairs the Fafnir needed. Perry, the AI bird, also needs some repairs. While they were gone, Van, Torina (Van’s new wife), Funboy, Gabby and Icky were proceeding to the *Iowa*, their battleship protecting Earth.
When Van and the *Frankie* arrived at the *Iowa* they were met with one of their older friends, a human, from South Africa, Blessing Mbana, or Essie for short. He related a story to Van about meeting a lawyer named Forester. That guy was part of the Equal Grasp, a corporations wanting to capitalize on Earth’s emergence into the galactic neighborhood. They had even already introduced the Earth to aliens by having a TV personality interview several aliens that were part of the Equal Grasp. The only problem was that no one on Earth took the aliens as serious or even as real. But, Van knew that someday Earth was going to have to be brought into the galactic fold. He also realized that while the Equal Grasp had their own agenda, there were other alien races that were just waiting for an opportunity to get markets on Earth either to raid it’s resources or to sell advanced weapons to whomever want to pay the price. Van knew he needed to get involved in this Earth introduction, but he wanted to do it slowly and over time.
So he agrees to work with the Equal Grasp as long as they only start introducing medical technology to humans that will help with some of their long term medical problems, like cancer for one. He also set up a means to introduce the Earth to a broad range of galactic aliens by bringing his crew down and going on a local TV show in of all places, Cedar Rapids, Iowa! Once again, the world ignores his shipload of aliens and doesn’t believe they were real. But, Van and company have other problems.
It seems like their arch enemy, Dohlennz, is out and about causing all sorts of trouble. So, they turn their attention back to capturing this worst of all enemies. He must be stopped at all cost. He’s still causing problems of stealing living beings and transplanting their consciousness into computers, of course without the consent of the being. Their original bodies are destroyed so there’s nothing left for these transplanted beings to go back to unless rescued by the Peacemaker Guild and primarily Van Tudor.
This effort to stop Dohlennz is going to cost a great deal. Van even has to deal with his mother before going directly after Dohlennz and that sidetrack results in the death of an important character in the series. Things are going to change, people are going to die so at the end of the book it’s gets pretty brutal.
I can’t tell what’s going to become of Van Tudor and his crew after this book. Things have taken a significant change both in the galaxy and back on Earth. Maybe it will be sorted out in book 16, “Heavy is the Crown”, now available on Amazon.