Ok, so we’re still following several story-lines in this book. Aldo Cassidy, now Captain Aldo Cassidy is with the Fleet Rapid Reaction Force under the command of Captain Risler commanding the *Arden*. The *Arden* and the *Olympus* have returned to the Terran Sector preparing to report to the Admiralty. Captain Adrian Horn of the *Olympus* said he had orders for his action, i.e., crossing the Talmar border and attacking their outpost. Captain Risler definitely didn’t have orders but she was acting on the request of two nobles. Whether that would do her any good to have them backup her actions, she didn’t know.
Yet, what they had found on their latest venture was a lot more information about the Gorlands. They even had intelligence that allowed the modification of personal weapons and even ship-board weapons that could defeat the Gorlands, something that hadn’t been done up to know. They also found the location of an apparently abandon Gorland battleship. That ship was immense, far larger than any ship of Terrans or Talmar had and it was just floating in space. She and Captain Horn were going to propose to the Admiralty that they go back across the border and see if they can gather more intel from this Gorland ship.
Meanwhile, Justicar Caden Raines and his partner, Sarina Heran wer aboard a starship they had taken from the Constance world while rescuing Jenna Oslow. They also had as their prisoner, Nate, a former Justicar that had gone bad and joined with the criminal Constance family. Jenna wanted to head back to Earth to reunite with her father and tell about her abduction, but Raines wanted to stop by the space station Borealis to find out if the head Justicar there, Helmut Nassir was also corrupted. What he found when they approached the space station was a floating wreck. Someone or something had attacked the space station and serious damaged it. Yet, Raines insisted on boarding the station to find Helmut. That decision might cost him his life.
As for Sam Levine, he and Shep, his technical wizard companion, and Mel were aboard a starship heading towards a planet that they thought would trade with them for computer equipment Shep needed to fix some of their problems. Sam was looking for Rodrigo Knowles, the guy that had switched his idenity from Aldo to Sam. That switch was illegal so I’m not sure what purpose he will find in locating Knowles other than getting all three of them sent to prison.
Meanwhile, back aboard the *Arden*, Aldo is tasked with boarding the huge Gorland starship and he’s to team up with a Lieuteant and Sergeant from the *Olympus*. It turns out that the Lieutenant knew Sam Levine back on Mars and thought he recognized Aldo as Sam. He reported this to his commanding officer. So, if they act on this suspicion, will Aldo’s real identity be revealed?
Needless to say, there’s a lot going on in this book. All these characters are off chasing something else and I don’t know if they will ever come together. Justicar Raines has pretty much forgotten about Sam/Aldo and I don’t know if the military will do much to find out who Aldo really is. I also don’t see why Sam and Shep are making the effort to find Knowles. It won’t do them any good because they’d have to have Aldo to try and switch back identies. Lots of strange things going on.
Still, the series does continue in book 6, “Identities”, now available on Amazon.