Not letting Nickal claim his prerogative in the heat of an interrogation, Ithan spoke. "I claimed you to wife, Xandra, on the flight back to Abode."

Her reaction wasn't what either man expected.

She laughed, weak, spindly, but a laugh. "Bad luck just won't end, but this time, I'm sure yours is worse than mine, husband."

After a thousand years of bioforming, turmoil and danger define the planet Aginfeld, but nothing has prepared its citizens for an attack by a centuries old Dragoon soldier, or another attempt by the Colonial Pact to claim ownership of Aginfeld. Enforcer Commandant Ithan Van Garth doesn't want another wife selected for him by anyone. He will claim his own no matter what the consequences. Dragoon pilot Xandra doesn't want to die, but she doesn't want to kill thousands of civilians for the greedy Colonial Pact directors. They leave her no choice.