The war is over but that doesn't mean things are peaceful. Pirates are running rampant, and the good guys have few ships that aren't in mothballs and no crews to man them. Ray Longknife is heading the Exploration Corps trying to discover new planets using the star maps he got from an alien computer. Private enterprise is also busy with planetary exploration looking for new worlds to maximize their corporate bottom lines.

However, ships are disappearing and, because the private explorers aren't sharing their routes, the number actually missing is unclear. Then, to add to the problem, "Admiral" Whitebred escapes from custody on Savannah with 24 other ships and goes out to be a pirate himself. So, are the losses due to Whitebred's efforts or is something else going on?

Rita Nuu Longknife and her two-month-old son have a ship that is going out to see what is going on in space. She's looking for missing ships and pirates, but what she finds is something else. It seems that humanity has finally met aliens. And pirates aren't the best possible ambassadors for first contact.

Hearing this episode of the Jump Universe books highlights the negatives of this series. The dialog is a little clunky. The characterizations are a bit wooden. But the worldbuilding is excellent. The adventure carries the day for this story. ( )