The light of the pulsar

In 2217, the Colonial Wars, the greatest and most destructive conflict mankind has ever known, ended. Both hostile parties, like an Earth mega-corporation, represented by the Space Association, the Extrasolar Community, bringing together free-thinking human colonies, suffered heavy losses and a peace treaty was the last resort, to avoid mutual destruction. Even ten years later, the old passions have not cooled and the old wrongs are still alive...

My name is Desmond Sommers.

In these uncertain times, my eight year old daughter Flora and I are heading to Lighthouse Station, located in the planetary system of the pulsar PSR B1257+12, to take command of it and start a new life without the risks and tensions I have so often experienced as a rescue team leader. Immediately after my arrival, however, I am plagued by strange visions, the station is sabotaged, and I learn unexpected things about my wife, who died in a reactor accident at the Neptune Stormcloud station and whose death I have not yet come to terms with.

When the station is attacked by Extrasolar Commonwealth ships, it sets off a chain of events that not only leads me to the Eridanus, the first ship capable of travelling through hyperspace corridors, but also puts me on the trail of the secretive and dangerous OROS consortium. And I find that I have more in common with the events that are taking place than I would ever have wished.