For being the Captain of the Concord’s latest and greatest starship, he’s getting to do some pretty mundane tasks, or so it seems at the start. This mission involves escorting the Ugna to their new homeworld of Driun F49. Elder Fayle was the current leader of the Ugna contingent onboard the Constantine. Captain Thomas Baldwin wasn’t necessarily looking for to the long trip and he didn’t see why he had to take his ship way out to a rather desolate part of the Concord just to drop off the leader of the Ugna. He clearly had good reason to ask why, because the Ugna had a tremendous fleet of ships aready assembled with more coming the further they moved toward Driun F49. In fact, Captain Baldwin would eventually find out that there were some two-million Ugna heading towards their new home planet, not just the small contingency aboard his ship and the flag ship of the Ugna, the Vastness.
To say the Ugna were hiding things from the Concord would now be an understatement. No one had any idea that there were over two-million Ugnas living among the other Concord member races. The Ugna themselves were a strange race in that they came from all species. Every Ugna had the ability to use the “Talent” in ways that seem magical to others. This “Talent” ability was part of their DNA and it had to be treated with respect and individuals had to be trained in its proper use. The Ugna aslo took care of anyone that was born with the Talent to the extent that they sought out children who demonstrated latent “Talent” abilities and either kidnapped or bought such children from their parents. Obviously, this did not set well with a large number of people in the Concord.
While on this escort mission, a distress call was received from the Seeli on behalf of the Minon, both member races of the Concord. Both races had recently found out that they were a dying race unable to conceive children, except in rare instances. They were also members of a five party colonization effort sent out from the planet Celevon. They had recently found a third huge colony ship sitting derelict in deep space with only a single living body on-board. She was believed to be of the original race and could possibly be the needed change to their DNA. So they had rescued her and she was being held on a Minon space station until the Vusuls showed up. These were a fourth race of the original five and they needed this girl to fix their problem.
So, as you can see, Captain Baldwin has his hands full. He has to complete the escort mission according to the Prime without delay. He assigns second-in-command, Commander Treena Starling to find out about these Vusuls and exactly why did they take the girl and destroy the Minon space station.
While all this is going on, Captain Thomas Baldwin is debating whether or not to accept a promotion to Admiral and be assigned to the Concord capital. He doesn’t like the idea of leaving the Constantine, so he’s just not sure he will accept the promotion. Additionally, Commander Starling has also been recommended for promotion and would be given one of the newest sister ships just like the Constantine. Again, she’s not sure if she wants the responsibility nor is she sure she wants to leave the Constantine. Both need make a decision and very soon.
Pretty good book, but a quick read. The story certainly isn’t over yet. That fifth colony ship was supposedly the one that colonized a planet in a system called the Solar System. The Constantine might be headed there and to a planet called, “Earth”!