Refugees from Utopia

After resolving the crisis on Santosia, Chairman Thomas Kafando and Starship Gagarin are invited to the core worlds of the Union of Sovereign Planets. The attack on Gagarin in the course of that misadventure was a very unfortunate misunderstanding and The Admiralty has an offer Gagarin cannot refuse: Hunt down and pacify the Starship Venture and bring Captain Kriss to justice and there will be peace between the union and mankind.

It turns out Captain Ferandia Kriss has always been a member of the Dissidents of Utopia: a clandestine, illegal, underground aid organization that helps planets directly against the laws and regulations of the Union of Sovereign Planets. After being outed during the Santosian Crisis, the Venture and her captain have disappeared.

On Gagarin, Emily Malex and Julu Serpen, both children of the Martian revolution, have maintained a tense detente. Malex is an accomplished engineer investigating the supertechnology that the Union of Sovereign Planets must utilize. Serpen is a soldier who will face any threat, no matter how overwhelming, and win anyway.

In the course of the investigation Gagarin discovers the Blood Legion, a parasitic fascist civilization that threatened the galaxy centuries ago, has re-awakened. The union is more focused on bringing Captain Kriss to justice at any cost.

Can Gagarin prevent the Blood Legion from awakening fully? Can they bring an uneasy peace between the Union of Sovereign Planets and all mankind? Or will war spread across the stars and draw the whole galaxy into a cauldron of violence?