Description: In the 21st-century, eleven extraterrestrial races have settled the planets and moons of the solar system, sometimes interacting with humans, sometimes ignoring them altogether. The alien races reached human space with faster-than-light drives -- deepdrives -- designed to self-destruct after use, taking the secret of their construction with them. Without deepdrives of their own, humans have no way to cross the vast interstellar gulf separating them from galactic civilization. But then a renegade Vronnan, the only one ever to enter the solar system, crashes on Venus and is taken into "protective custody". There is no telling what he knows -- perhaps even the elusive secret of the deepdrive. Now a ragtag group of mercenaries, thrown together by chance and failure, determines to break him out and learn his secrets for themselves.

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