Retired from his fighting days, John Perry is now village ombudsman for ahuman colony on distant Huckleberry. With his wife, former Special Forceswarrior Jane Sagan, he farms several acres, adjudicates local disputes,and enjoys watching his adopted daughter grow up. That is, until his andJane's past reaches out to bring them back into the game — asleaders of a new human colony, to be peopled by settlers from all themajor human worlds, for a deep political purpose that will put Perry andSagan back in the thick of interstellar politics, betrayal, and war.