The epic conclusion to Bob Mauldin's best-selling Stellar Heritage series! With the human-Shiravan treaty on the line, Kitty Hawke must violently end a mutiny aboard one of her ships. Afterwards, she leaves Shiravi, bound for Earth after being away for two years. Marsha Kane replaces Kitty as the head of the human fleet in Shiravan space, but she has her own plans on how to end the war with the Garmon, formerly called the Korvil. Meanwhile, the humans and Shiravan take the fight to the Garmon, destroying their ships and decimating their worlds, and it seems as if the war is nearing its end. But things take a turn for the worse when the Garmon upgrade their technology and stage a massive attack on Shiravi, destroying the Matriarch's home and taking many lives. Amidst all the chaos, the Terran Alliance solidifies its foothold in space and then looks to the next step-the colonization of other worlds. Kitty and Simon's dream of exploring the unknown seems more distant now than ever as they struggle to survive. But they know how the old saying goes-when one door closes... another opens.