The Empire is in decline. Only a few people realize that so far, but one of them is the Emperor, and another is Sander Cord. Cord and the Emperor grew up together, and he is the Emperor's closest (and maybe only) friend. They have formed a plan to try to preserve civilization when the Empire inevitably falls. The Emperor has appointed Cord Viceroy of the Rim Sector, the only part of the Empire that is still dynamic enough and remote enough to have a chance of surviving the fall. After twelve years, their plan is about to succeed. The Emperor is about to grant the Rim Sector almost complete independence. Unfortunately, a Rear Admiral commanding an Empire Fleet base and a powerful battle group has discovered the plan. The admiral knows he is being investigated for criminal activity. He plans to use his forces to seize the Sector, and then return it to the Emperor in exchange for amnesty. Anchoring the admiral's forces is the dreadnought Nemesis, a kilometer-sized ship carrying more armament than most planets. Cord's own people have learned of the admiral's plan, but Cord has nothing with which to counter this overwhelming military force. Cord recruits Val Kedron, a trader captain with military experience, to organize and command a force to oppose Jonas. Val puts his best friend and engineer to work with the best minds on the rim in an effort to find weapons that can be designed, built, and installed in existing civilian ships quickly. He also has to recruit a new astrogator, a deputy and flag captain to support him, and someone to command a ground-based resistance. The astrogator Val finds is female, and he slowly falls in love with her. An old friend becomes his deputy and flag captain, and a marine major defected from the admiral takes command of ground-based resistance. Val and his people must use ingenuity, imagination, and even a sentient ship to counter the admiral's massive firepower and salvage the Emperor's plan to preserve human civilization.

Kas Preslin, a disgraced captain in the Fleet of the declining Empire, is sent to recover an Empire Battle Cruiser, a massive warship bristling with weapons that disappeared a century ago. It is drifting in an uncharted system under a plague beacon. But other governments are also searching for her. If one of them gets to her first and salvages her, it could touch off an interstellar war that could destroy the Empire and throw man-settled space into chaos. Kas must take a refitted freighter with a cargo of crewmembers for the Battle Cruiser in cold sleep on an undercover mission to recover the ship, cure the plague that killed her crew, fight his way across the galaxy, battle hostile politicians, and return her to the Empire before another system locates her and interstellar war ravages the galaxy.

Jerd Carver wasn’t Captain of the star freighter Startrader. No, he was just a slum-bred cargo handler, until everyone aboard was killed except him. With the help of the ship’s Artificial Intelligence, he located the nearest known settled star, some ten light years away; thirty years away in normal space. There is, however a system just less than one light year away that might have an Earthlike planet. It does have one, and it also has a colony. Haven was settled 500 years ago, but a catastrophe prevented it from landing their colony ship, which was designed to provide computer information services for a century. Without the ship’s services, the colony has reverted, and is now at a prespace level. After two years in normal space, Jerd is desperate for human company. But the colony has airships, radios, and a patchwork of small nations. What kind of welcome can he expect? Startrader and the colony ship both contain information which would let any of the six nations occupying Haven take over the planet. Will the nations welcome him and his ship? Will they race to kill him and seize Startrader and its wonders? Will he face spies and assassins, or will he find a new home? Find out in William Zellmann’s newest space opera!