In these perilous days, all of Emperor Onrad V’s subjects needed to be clever—because cleverness was nearly all they had to fight with. Their ancient Empire stood defiant, but nearly alone and friendless in the Home Galaxy, with only the Great Federation of Sodeskayan States—herself under attack—to help counter the onslaught of Nergol Triannic’s League of Dark Stars. One by one, the great allied star domains had capitulated before these lightning attacks. Now, fully half the galaxy lay prostrate beneath Triannic’s jack-booted feet.

Only a few months after completing the most highly classified assignment of his life—and a surprise promotion to Rear Admiral (lower half)—Wilf Brim’s new assignment: Commander of the Imperial Fleet Base on Atalanta’s Grand Harbor, primary Sector Space Defense for the planet Haelic. His first task: restore the base to a wartime state of affairs in the shortest possible time. The sprawling base—despite its tremendous size and strategic location—had been allowed to become little more than a backwater in the fast-expanding Second Great War. It wasn’t as if the War Cabinet in Avalon City had considered Atalanta unimportant; but Imperial resources were low after years of opposition to defense spending by powerful anti-war groups. Until home production caught up with demand, the Empire’s limited forces would necessarily be concentrated in locations that were under active attack. And Atalanta met that requirement all too well.

If Wilf Brim failed, the Empire itself might be doomed, but if he succeeded, the political situation might end his career.

**

### About the Author

Bill Baldwin, the author of The Helmsman series, is a graduate of the Mercerburg Academy and the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned a B.A. in journalism and a Masters of Letters degree. He served in the U.S. Air Force at Cape Canaveral supporting Project Mercury. He also managed astronaut public relations during the Gemini and Early Apollo programs. He has worked as a computer programmer for Burroughs Corporation (now UNISYS) and Xerox Corporation. Bill lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife Pat and two cats.