This book comes with a new author (to me) and a new series. Haven’t really started a new series in quite some time. This one will be one that I continue with since it’s turning out to be pretty interesting.
Right off, out main character is a Commander Dalton Reeves commands the Destroyer, a starship of the Bastion Navy. He’s not fighting a war right now, just trying to stop some space pirates from fleeing Bastion space into another alien species territory. Commander Reeves is a very aggressive Captain, sometimes overly aggressive in the opinion of his XO, Major Katee Kane. She’s there to try and reign him in when he decides to go a little too far, but she’s not always successful. They’ve been together for quite some time so she knows full well some of Commander Reeves actions before he sometimes takes them.
This time, she can’t get him to stop. He’s getting ready to pursue these Bukkan pirates into Quarr space and nothing is going to stop him. The Quarr normally do not tolerate incursions into their space. They usually act quick and decisive and ask questions later. So, as soon as the Destroyer crosses the line into Quarr space, they pick up a Quarr patrol heading straight for them. Still, Reeves figured he has some time so the went to work with his boarding party including himself and his XO. Well, now should know that you’re not reading a story based on real space warfighting. No Captain of a space vessel would go on a boarding party mission and to take his second in command is also pretty stupid. I don’t consider authors who right this kind of story that knowledgeable in military tactics. Oh, it makes for an exciting book, but it’s not the way it should or would be done.
So, Commander Reeves storms this pirate vessel, finds it Captain and does what he has to do. Then he has to face off with the Quarr Captain of the patrol that has now locked weapons on his ship. The Quarr and humans have fought wars before, but now there’s a peace between all six of the alien civilizations occupying this part of the galaxy. Commander Reeves is betting that the Quarr patrol Captain won’t start a war over this incident. An a big incident it becomes for his Commander who is Commodore Jana. She has attempted to cover for Reeves aggressive actions on a number of occasions, but the Quarr filed a formal objection to his latest actions.
So, it Commander Dalton Reeves is given two choices. One, he can resign his commission and leave the Navy or two, he can accept an assignment outside the Navy as commander of Concord Station. Concord Station is a huge 20-kilometer-long space station placed in the middle of nowhere space between the six different alien civilizations. This is a diplomatic facility where all the civilizations can supposedly sit down and discuss their grievances and hopefully, stave off another war. Diplomacy is not one of Reeves strong suites, in fact, he barely knows the word. But, this is the assignment he has, so he’s going to make the best of it. At least he will be the Commander and operations of the station will be his sole responsibility.
This is where the rest of the book takes place and takes off. This isn’t going to be a cushy job. Concord Station also has another name and that is “The Abyss”. Most people assigned consider it a deep, dark hole from which they will never come out of alive or otherwise. It is usually staffed by military personnel who have are on their very last assignment before being thrown out the door. Supposedly, no one every “volunteers” for the Abyss. As to the civilians aboard the space station, these are usually the dregs of society. it is a known place of illicit gambling and any other vice you might know of. It’s definitely not a vacation spot. The now previous Commander was a vile and corrupt as most of the other criminals that called the Abyss home so the new Commander, Dalton Reeeves has his work cut out for him!
This is an interesting story mixing six different species together who some how have a common language and understanding about how to do things. That’s quite an accomplishment in itself. The character development of Dalton Reeves is pretty good; he’s got a background that is a very big part of the story although he doesn’t know about all of it. So, book one just gets everything set and gets us ready to go into more details as to how and why Earth was destroyed thousands of years ago, but is there a way to change all that. I don’t know, but I’m going to read more to find out.