The Pfhor invasion of Sol has been recalled, and for now Earth is safe. But man's respite from war means another cataclysmic battle for the S'pht. The slavers have not suffered a defeat like the one we handed them today since the Nakh, the last extant client race of the Jjaro, rebelled six thousand years ago.

The Pfhor have a weapon they save for slave revolts; a weapon which even they hesitate to use in the ordinary conduct of war. In the language of the Jjaro who conceived and built the device, it is called the trih xeem; a fair English translation would be "early nova".

There is not a single Nakh alive today, and if you look for their stars, you will only find ever-expanding clouds of superheated gas and dust light-years in diameter.

The evacuation of Lh'owon has already begun. In a matter of hours this planet will be a thin shell of plasma riding the shockwave of its exploding star.

You can stay behind to work on your tan, if you'd like, but I'm leaving.

I have rechristened the Khfiva the Rozinante. Of course, the S'pht wanted to name it "K'liah'Narhl", "Vengeance of K'lia".

Whatever.

There is much to do in the next few months and our first stop will be another ruined world, this time far from the galactic core. There is a rogue star that has been passing through our galaxy for nearly a millennia.

We will meet it in one of the great voids between the spiral arms.