I always keep my word. That's why I'm headed back to Mars for a case. That's also why the Spiffies - Space Patrol Intelligence Force - came sniffing around my office. I told them to get lost. They told me my case had connections to their search for the Bloodsword, the pirate ship that destroyed my first command and cost me my career in Space Patrol.

But my case has roots far older than my six-year quest for vengeance against the Bloodsword. Roots that stretch back to the dawn of Martian civilization.

And Trouble, my partner and lover, is right smack in the middle of it all.