Can a young, shipwrecked space pilot, trapped on a backward planet where the only aircraft are biplanes, stop the rebirth of an evil interstellar empire? Pilot First Class Melodan Castille of the Revolutionary Space Force has just graduated top of her class from the RSF Academy. She's a good pilot and knows it: what she doesn't know is why she's out in the boondocks when her classmates are gearing up for the final assault on the Preceptorate's headquarters on Earth that will end the century-old Revolution. By comparison, her assignment to scout the mysterious planet Avalon means nothing. Nothing, that is, until her scoutcraft is shot out of space as she enters the system; nothing, until her lifeslip crashes in the middle of a local uprising; nothing, until she finds out that the "final" attack on Earth her classmates are making is really only a prelude to the long, bloody struggle that will come if the evil Preceptorate succeeds in its plans to make Avalon its last, secret stronghold. Though mistrusted by the local freedom fighters who should be her allies and hunted by the planetary governor, Melodan must find a way to get a message to the Revolutionary Space Force -- before it's too late, for her, for Avalon, and for the galaxy's hope for freedom and peace.