Martian convicts and political prisoners developed an interstellar engine capable of traveling at superluminal speeds and deserted from Mars. Earth dictatorship fears invasion, so it surrounded the planet with protective belts. And then one day a ship hit the belt, on which there was a supporter of the rebels....

Bandits from the Brotherhood of Beldon captured the Operational Block of the Seventh Star space hotel and planted a bomb. Heslet Quillan has six hours to frustrate their plans, as well as to neutralize Hlath, who escaped from the biomodule....

A large man in a neatly patched ship's uniform, sitting on a rocky ledge, looked thoughtfully down, where at the foot of the mountain the skeletons of two crashed spaceships rested side by side. Next to the man was a massive bow leaning against a rock, and a creature the size of a thrush, with yellow eyes and a lively disposition named Bird was spinning at his feet....