Audra Atlanta has been dead for two years. So it comes as a bit of a shock when she walks into the Athena's conference room during a Command briefing. Now she must grapple with her body's response to her being brought back from the dead by the miraculous skill of Doctor Caidin Mantose and his powers of the Thane.Caught trying to make good his escape from the Albion Battlecruiser, Tarzana, Gunnar Conrad finds himself a 'guest' of the Queen Captain, Drax Blair and Albion Thane, Blinda Koss. Prize in hand, Drax orders CJ Barker to take the Tarzana to Calliope, the Castellian home world where the Hadrian Rite of Pintar is being held.Discovering there's a saboteur onboard the Constellation, Dakota and the crew continue to struggle with trying to restore power and control to their ship before their Albion captors can reach their final destination, Calliope.With the revelation of a possible way home, Rick must now mount a search and rescue operation for the Constellation and her crew. Not only to keep it from falling into the hands of those who would subvert its vast destructive capabilities, but to also bring his friend Gunnar back to Audra.

Schultz, although a Jersey boy at heart, presently lives in Raleigh, NC, with his wife, Debbie, and three children. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1969 and, after exploring the world, went on to receive an M.D. degree from Cornell University and completed his orthopaedic surgery residency at Harvard. Now retired from private practice Robert enjoys giving back to the medical profession by serving on the teaching faculty in the department of orthopaedics at Duke University. He remains a student of existential discovery.