Edward "Chase" Morgan, NASA's accident investigator at Lunar Alpha Base, plans an uneventful retirement-until the crash of the Stellarfare Phoenix kills the United States Secretary of Energy and turns Chase's last case into a fight to avert war. Evidence of deliberate sabotage and Chinese government involvement suggest that this is the first in a series of political moves designed to undermine America's interplanetary clout. Events escalate as both sides break decades-old treaties. But when Chase learns that someone fabricated the evidence, he suspects conspiracy. Now he must find proof before the expanding crisis tears all of the colonized worlds asunder.