Captain Mackenzie Calhoun’s journey is never less than fascinating, told here as only Peter David can tell it. A crewman has been murdered aboard the U.S.S. Trident, and all evidence points to Ensign Janos of the Excalibur. Captain Mackenzie Calhoun is reluctant to accept that Janos, a powerful non-humanoid whom the captain has known and trusted for years, could be a killer, and immediately launches an investigation into the crime. But this troubling murder mystery soon escalates into a full-fledged diplomatic crisis that threatens to pit Calhoun and Captain Elizabeth Shelby against the entire United Federation of Planetsand the Starship Enterprise. Meanwhile, the turmoil involving Ensign Janos forces Calhoun to recall his own tempestuous past, his rocky relationship with a young Elizabeth Shelbyand a long-ago exploit that may have everything to do with the deadly emergency that now confronts them all!