Book excerpt: In another time and place, an enormous society of worlds and species with common interests in profitable financial exchange has somehow survived hundreds of years of terrorist threats and war. But now as the battles end, the society faces its greatest threat: an alliance of seven poor planets colonized by their outcasts. These outcasts are not terrorists or warriors. They have no armed forces powerful enough to subdue worlds. Their only weapon is their mysterious ability to produce astonishing quantities of gold and platinumtwo tangible commodities that support all interstellar commerce and hold the potential to make them all very wealthy. But there are those who want nothing more than to be the first to discover the secret to their ability. One corporation smuggles a former monk into one of the human colonies to learn more. Now only time will tell if he can accomplish his mission. With the help from a legendary and beautiful Nova Chaser, he will find much more than he ever bargained for. In this sci-fi thriller, a former monk assigned to learn the powerful secret harbored by a human colony of outcasts discovers that revelations sometimes hide in the most unusual of places.