Synopsis
It's April 2302 and the League of Aligned Worlds, humanity's first interstellar government, is just six months shy of its one hundred and twenty-fifth birthday. And there's much to celebrate. No real problems, save constant pirate hunting and a little showing of the flag to keep the provincials in line. But all in all 2302 is a good year. That is unless you're one of the billions of starving "residents" of Sol system or the other inner systems lacking citizenship and the vote. Commander Natalie Jamison, of the Interstellar Fleet, is from the other end of the social strata. Descended from the man who invented the propulsion system used by today's space vessels, she comes from a life of wealth and privilege. Her only care is to beat her father's record for making admiral before forty, have to make the family proud, and making sure the ship she commands, LAWS Wheatley, comes back in one piece. Then everything changes as she opens sealed orders commanding her to return to Fleet HQ on Earth. No specifics, just that it's urgent and to return instantly.
The largest pirate syndicates were no match for a squadron of battleships and the independence movements had almost no space going presence whatsoever. The only thing that could threaten the Interstellar Fleet would be alien invasion and mankind had never come across anything more advanced than a lemur in his nearly two hundred year interstellar history. But the book on extraterrestrial life is about to be thrown out the airlock along with Natalie's carefree existence. Forget making admiral before forty, she might be one by the time she got home.
