Having beaten back the alien attack on Alwah, Kris takes a small fleet to search for the home planet of the alien raiders. There they discover a large pyramid which holds trophies - 412 different planets the raiders have conquered and sterilized. They also find and capture some remnants of the aliens. Kris has always wanted to be able to talk with them, but they have chosen suicide over talk every time Kris has encountered them.

She brings her captured survivors back to Alwah only to arrive just as a ship is fleeing to get back to human space under the command of one of her bitter rivals. While chasing the ship, they discover a new race of beings and an outpost of the aliens.

Kris's small contingent of ships manages to defeat the aliens at the outpost but with heavy losses. Again they capture a small number of the aliens before they can commit suicide. Kris learns just how relentless the enemy is.

She decides to send a couple of ships back home carrying all they have learned about the aliens and a new discovery from Alwah which has great scientific potential, while she waits for the potential alien invasion.

This was entertaining space opera. ( )

A whole lot more about the aliens - the bug-eyed monsters...it's hard to give them a nickname when they look physically human! Their home planet, and _why_ they're as obsessed as they are. Several space battles, and at least one more mothership. And an entirely new group of aliens - felines, whose society is very very similar to 20th century Earth (ok, aside from the fact that it's the females who fight). Tech levels, countries, war and threatened war...things change a little when the BEMs show up, and Kris gets between them and the feline planet, though. Yet another batch of allies, from Earth this time. More new tech, too - and Smart Metal getting ridiculous. It's tech, not magic. Still a lot of trouble with bad apples within the Navy, too - and stiffnecks, which isn't _quite_ the same thing though it's just as much trouble. ( )

so far it has more action. still lots of planning and logistics but there is action in between it. (yes, i'm counting the planet exploration as action.) and i am just a tad skeptical that everyone would accept Kris having so many leadership roles in the Alwa system. i totally believe the King her grandfather would give it to her but a tad skeptical everybody would be like "oh, ok she's EVERYBODY'S boos. that's cool with me." She's good at it and fair and listens to the experts and ask advice. still that's a lot of very important hats she is wearing and i doubt in reality folks would let this be. it's too close to a dictatorship. ( )

so far it has more action. still lots of planning and logistics but there is action in between it. (yes, i'm counting the planet exploration as action.) and i am just a tad skeptical that everyone would accept Kris having so many leadership roles in the Alwa system. i totally believe the King her grandfather would give it to her but a tad skeptical everybody would be like "oh, ok she's EVERYBODY'S boos. that's cool with me." She's good at it and fair and listens to the experts and ask advice. still that's a lot of very important hats she is wearing and i doubt in reality folks would let this be. it's too close to a dictatorship. ( )

so far it has more action. still lots of planning and logistics but there is action in between it. (yes, i'm counting the planet exploration as action.) and i am just a tad skeptical that everyone would accept Kris having so many leadership roles in the Alwa system. i totally believe the King her grandfather would give it to her but a tad skeptical everybody would be like "oh, ok she's EVERYBODY'S boos. that's cool with me." She's good at it and fair and listens to the experts and ask advice. still that's a lot of very important hats she is wearing and i doubt in reality folks would let this be. it's too close to a dictatorship. ( )