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The Emperor's daughter Mercedes is the first woman ever admitted to The High Ground, the elite training academy of the Solar League's Star Command, and she must graduate if she is to have any hope of taking the throne. Her classmate Tracy has more modest goals -- to defy his humble beginnings and rise to the rank of captain. But in a system rocked by political division, where women are governed by their husbands and fathers, the poor are kept in their place by a rigid class system, and the alien races have been conquered and subjugated, there are many who want them to fail.

A civil war is coming, and the political machinations of those who yearn for power threaten the young cadets. In a time of intrigue, class conflict, and alien invasion, they will be tested as they never thought possible...

Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor and the Infanta Mercedes de Arango have graduated from The High Ground and have become officers in the Orden de la Estrella. Tracy's posting aboard a battleship leads him to further doubt the intentions of the Solar League, as he and his comrades are required to "assimilate" the settlers of a Hidden World.

Meanwhile, Mercedes' own posting -- and her difficult marriage to Beauregard "Boho" Cullen, made to assure her succession of the throne -- divides her loyalties. In a society where most humans and all aliens are second-class citizens, the two young officers will have difficult choices to make...

Fourteen years have passed since he was framed for theft to cover up an imperial atrocity, and disgraced military officer Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor has built a new life for himself. Living under an assumed name as the captain of a small trading vessel crewed primarily by aliens, he and his crew engage in both legal and illegal deals just under the radar of the Solar League authorities.

At the other end of the social hierarchy, Princess Mercedes de Arango has her own problems -- the major one being the lack of an heir. Meanwhile her philandering husband Boho Cullen has ably proved the problem isn't him. With rumors of a coup swirling around the throne, Mercedes makes the desperate decision to undertake a military campaign and gain her people's allegiance through a victory. But when things go badly wrong and her future lies in the hands of the man she betrayed, Tracy has a choice to make -- can he ever forgive her?

The Solar League, humanity's empire, has existed since mankind reached for the stars. While the humans considered it the pinnacle of human achievement, for the subjugated alien races it seemed only to endorse humanity's worst impulses. But the worst of humanity pales in comparison to an alien onslaught that is on the verge of bringing mankind down into death and subjugation.

Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor helps lead the Solar League's desperate defense against this new alien threat while the Empress of the Solar League, Mercedes, tries to keep the League from tearing apart.

However, neither is prepared for the questions that need to be answered to save mankind and all of the human and non-human citizens of the League. Is humanity redeemable? Can the League reform into something better?

Tracy and Mercedes must ask these questions of themselves and then decide the future of humanity while facing betrayals, ambition, and secrets that may bring about a dark age for the galaxy.

It's been two hundred years since the Solar League faced an alien threat. Now aliens have attacked with horrific force. And only the Empress Mercedes de Arango can inspire and lead her people, even as the alien menace rains death on the League worlds.

She desperately needs competent military officers to battle the aliens, so Mercedes reaches out to her secret love Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor. She begs Tracy to return to active duty -- taking the risk that Tracy will uncover the truth about her son and a long ago encounter she and Tracy agreed to forget.

In the midst of a losing war against outside invaders with no mercy, civil war looms. Mercedes' son and her youngest sister face execution and worse as pawns in this game of thrones.

Unable to save them, Mercedes once again calls upon Tracy and his unorthodox smuggler's skills to rescue her sister and her son. But can any of them survive the revelation of a devasting secret, one that will forever undermine the stability of the throne?