The Bolt Cluster is an area of close-knit stars that harbors a curious planet and deadly secret. Starships which enter the cluster never return. An alien enigma there has cost Wannstead Industries so many lives and ships that they finally decide to turn it over to the US Space Navy and its futuristic contingent of roughneck Marines. Captain Keane leads mankind's most lethal spaceship into unknown alien territory, fighting battles against a bizarre alien species that will never surrender. Keane and the crew of Doc Travis are now involved in mankind's first interstellar war, where the very existence of humanity may be at stake. The Bolt Cluster enigma must not only be solved but Keane and the Doc Travis also have to survive and return to Earth. Humanity must be warned of the threat or all the lives and ships lost so far will be in vain.