A million people were about to die! The entire population of the planet Priamos was marked for death if one person on the surface could not be
found in time. The staggering order was emotionless and inhuman - exactly like the Iduve, the strange aliens who handed down the decree.
Perhaps the most advanced and least understood race in the known universe, the
Iduve lived in giant spaceships that roamed in random patterns around
the galaxy. For nearly two hundred years one of these mammoth vessels,
The Ashanome, had been stalking an offender... one of their own kind
who betrayed an ancient rite and fled into the sanctuary of "human"
space.
Now, as The Ashanome went into orbit around his hiding place,
it was time for vaikka, the ultimate vengeance and return of honour
which the Iduve cherished above all else. To accomplish their task,
they commanded the aid of three very different individuals - Aiela
Lyailleue, a young man of the peaceable Kallia race who was forcibly
inducted into the Starlord's service, possibly never to see his home or
family again; Daniel, a savage human with nothing but fear and blind
hatred for his captors; and Isande, a beautiful woman who knew more
about the Iduve than the Iduve themselves.
Together, through the
process of Asuthi, all three had their minds melded into a single entity - learning not only each other's language, but each other's way of
life, inner feelings and deepest secrets. For in a short time they
would descend to the threatening surface of Priamos. Their mission:
search out and kill the offender.
If they were to be successful, they would surely need the combined resources of all their wits and
intuitive knowledge. Within a few short hours, the trio had to find the needle in the haystack - or they and the planet's million other men,
women and children would perish in a single searing flash of white hot
energy. The Iduve knew no other way...