A female cop seeks refuge on another planet after being infected by an alien virus in this science fiction fantasy novel from a New York Times bestseller. Shan Frankland forever abandoned the world she knew to come to the rescue of a lost colony on a distant and dangerous planet—a hostile world coveted by two alien races and fiercely protected by a third. But in the course of her mission, she overstepped a boundary and stumbled into forbidden lands. And she can never go back—to being neutral, to being safe. To being human. War is coming again to Cavanagh's Star — and this time, the instigators will be the troublesome gethes from the faraway planet Earth. Former Environmental Enforcement Officer Shan Frankland has already crossed a line, and now she is a prize to be captured . . . or a threat to be eliminated. But saving a coveted world and its fragile native population may require of her one unthinkable sacrifice: the destruction of her own ruthless, invading species. "Had me thinking of Le Guin . . . (readers) should find many of the same pleasures and useful discomforts." —Locus magazine