author : Judith Tarr

For five thousand Earthyears the planet called Nevermore has been abandoned. Only a handful of nomadic tribes remain, none of whom remember those who came before. An expedition from Earth has been trying without success to solve the planet’s mystery. Aisha, the daughter of the expedition’s leaders, sets out to open a sealed tomb or treasury—but instead destroys it. Only one treasure survives, but it may hold the answer they have been looking for.

Captain Khalida Nasir of Military Intelligence has a quarter-million deaths on her conscience. Even in the solitude of Nevermore, her past will not let her go. The war she thought was ended still rages. Her superiors force her back into service, and dispatch her to a world that may also offer a clue to the mystery of Nevermore.

With a mysterious stranger, the sentient starship he liberates from torment and slavery, and a crew of scientists, explorers, and renegades, Aisha and Khalida set off on a journcy to the end of the universe and beyond. What they find will change not only the future of Nevermore, but that of all the United Planets.