An unstable utopia... The nine-world Arcturian Confederation have imposed five centuries of peace across more than five hundred human colonies. If orthodynamics, the technology behind faster than light travel, fell into the wrong hands, this utopia could end in a catastrophic interstellar war. The Arcturian Space Fleet grew old and inflexible waiting for the wars that never came. Now two unscrupulous adventurers believe it would be easy prey. They plan to take over a recently colonised planet, and they don't care how many colonists they kill. One small and seemingly fragile woman stands between them and success. A woman with a core of pure steel. Space Fleet's Jane Gould alone can save the colonists, but at what personal cost? (The Arcturian Confederation - Volume one of two.)