Book excerpt: Starblue Ash, daughter of Rhianni Day and Petroc Ash, is well aware of the burden of her heritage. She has sworn never to join the Rovers or leave Mallachrom. Blue learns the hard way that swearing never to do something just challenges the universe to work against her. Her two closest friends are the twins, Neona and Keegan Creed, children of Nureen Keala and Tedrin Creed. The three have shared a psionic bond since childhood. The twins are Rover pilots. Commander General Day of the Rovers is determined to make Blue a Rover, because she is the last of their family line. If he has to use her friends against her, he will. Fate intervenes when a team of Rovers discovers a world inhabited by creatures uncannily similar to the Shadows of Mallachrom. The Creed twins' duty takes them to this world, to investigate. Neona is entranced by the creatures, called Shades. When the Shades make mental captives of Neona and other Rovers, the bond between the twins is stretched to the point of breaking. Blue's bond with the twins might be the only hope they have of freeing the prisoners.