Synopsis: 2105, September: Intelligence Analyst Caine Riordan uncovers a conspiracy on Earth's Moon - a history-changing clandestine project - and ends up involuntarily cryocelled for his troubles. Twelve years later, Riordan awakens to a changed world. Humanity has achieved faster-than-light travel and is pioneering nearby star systems. And now, Riordan is compelled to become an inadvertent agent of conspiracy himself. Riordan's mission: travel to a newly settled world and investigate whether a primitive local species was once sentient - enough so to have built a lost civilization. However, arriving on site in the Delta Pavonis system, Caine discovers that the job he's been given is anything but secret or safe. With assassins and saboteurs dogging his every step, it's clear that someone doesn't want his mission to succeed. Riordan must now convince the powers-that-be that the only way for humanity to survive as a free species is to face the perils directly - and to fight fire with fire. (from the back cover of the Baen Books paperback edition)