In an act of heroism and self-sacrifice, Anderson Rawn’s sister saved him through the destruction of their tiny mining colony, but her actions condemned the thirteen-year-old to ten years of crushing loneliness for the hyperspace journey to a fresh home. Using electronics and desperation, Anderson creates a family to maintain him company, but family isn’t always a blessing.

When Anderson finally arrives, C.J. Poulson greets him with curiosity and awe, because anyone who can survive a holocaust and reinvent holo-science is likely to be a tale and correct up C.J.’s alley. But the even more C.J. investigates how Anderson endured the final ten years, the deeper he is drawn right into a truly dangerous fantasy, one that offers the essential to Anderson’s salvation-and his devastation.

Regardless of his best intentions, C.J. can’t withstand the terribly seductive Anderson. Their appeal threatens to ruin them, as the heart of a man who may survive the destruction of his people and retain his feeling of self retains a solid primary of alpha male that will not be denied.