Niall and his crew are just centimeters away from freedom, escaping in the stolen starship they've christened the Nova Vendetta. Then disaster strikes, paralyzing their ship. Retaken as prisoners, they find themselves traveling on the very ship that should have been their ticket to freedom. Just when they're beginning to despair, the unthinkable happens: Experimental technology and a risky gamble put the ship under their control. The escaped prisoners head for the furthest reaches of known space, determined to stay free at any cost. Labeled rebels and pirates and criminals, they hold to the principles that have let them survive and stay Human during their time in prison. To the outlying colonies slowly being abandoned by the disintegration of the Central Allied Worlds, the crew of the Nova Vendetta and its slowly growing fleet of allies are heroes in the truest sense of the word. The revolution reaches out to threaten Niall's homeworld. Niall knows it's time to go home. He has to protect Sorendaal, even if it means giving himself into the hands of the very people who want him dead.

Niall Encardi is ready to graduate after long, intensive years of medical training and go home to the colony world of Sorendaal. His life-long dream has been to become a healer and help the people his uncle, the governor, leads. The revolutionaries who overthrow the current government of the Central Allied Worlds have other plans. When the homeworlds of Niall and his classmates don't immediately give support and approval to the revolutionaries, the medical students are labeled enemies of the state and transported to prison. Despite every effort to stay focused on his first calling, healing and medicine, Niall becomes a leader, first on a prison planet, then on the prison space station known as the Abyss. Every time the government changes hands, he and his friends and then his allies in the prison society are labeled conspirators and sympathizers and condemned to yet more imprisonment. By the time the Abyss is attacked, Niall and his people have become a force to be reckoned with in their goal of freedom...even if it means turning pirate, like the falsely imprisoned nobleman who once sailed the ancient seas, on a ship called the Vendetta.

Rescuing K'reeth from her kidnappers brought an epic storm down on their enemies, but common sense said the Dominators were far from defeated. Taron and K'reeth had dreamed of a world where Ayanlak and Na'huma colonists could live together in peace and acceptance. Now that she was pregnant, they needed to make that world a reality, and soon, or their child of two races might never be born. Admiral Dorwen had a dream of a peace village, where both groups of galactic refugees could learn from each other and learn to share their world, which the Ayanlak had named Storm Shelter and the Na'huma colonists had named Refuge. As fall turned to winter, volunteers gathered and shared ideas, and traveled to the T'bredi enclave, where they would be safe from their enemies, to prepare to start building in the spring. Touching while meeting together in the Dream Plain had always been forbidden, and the storm created when Taron rescued K'reeth illustrated exactly why. But that discovery sparked curiosity, and K'rin and other scholars delved into the archives to learn more about the Dream Plain, who had learned how to use it, and what else they could do in the realm of the mind. If people could travel wide distances through the Dream Plain--granted, with devastating consequences--what else could travel through it? The discovery of ancient treasures stored in the Dream Plain, unchanged by the centuries, opened doors of speculation and possibilities, and a chance to delve the secrets of the ancestors.

The colony world of Rensler remains under occupation by enemy forces. Erion Rensler, governor, and his father, Elbarto, the former governor, are still prisoners, their location unknown. All that stands between the invaders and success are the Rensler brothers, Eryk and Edrian. Eryk leads the resistance fighters in the forests of Rensler. Edrian stays under the watchful eye of the enemy, playing a dangerous game of deception. At night, he sheds his pretense of being a sickly book-head and becomes the Talon, defender of the colony, riding on a deadly Nightskimmer...

Khybors flee to Norbra for a safe place to raise their children, far from enemies who want them declared non-Humans, or want to enslave or annihilate them entirely. Like the selfish, arrogant queen of legend for whom the planet is named, Norbra has a reputation for destroying all life. Elin and those who settle the planet believe no one else will want it. They hope their enemies will leave them in peace while they wait for Norbra to do the hard work of destroying their troublesome race. However, Khybors are made to survive. They make Norbra their home and use the dangers of the planet for their own defense. Then. as the generations go on, they make a long-range plan for survival, aware that their enemies won't give up. The only way for Khybors to survive as a race is to withdraw so far away that the Set'ri and other enemies will never find them, and in time, may even forget about them. Rorin Pace comes to Norbra to win Elin's heart, to follow his dream of piloting one of their ships, and to find a way to protect all Khybors. Kheeran, their daughter, reaches new dimensions as a pilot. Their son Banjer dives deeper within the computer world and discovers the vital element in the Khybors' long-range plans of escape to the far reaches of space. Zeph, a Wrinkleship pilot, allies with the Khybors in building their fleet and brings them a damaged ship called the Nova Vendetta, full of prisoners, pirates, and a growing artificial intelligence. Errien, Kheeran's daughter, leads the pilots who search for new gateways to other universes. Meanwhile, their enemies grow stronger and come closer, and the countdown begins to the destruction of the Central Allied Worlds.

K'reeth and her sister, K'rin, were named for the moonbirds--sister raptor birds who share parenting duties, one the nurturer, the other the hunter and defender. Orphaned by catastrophe and adopted by the High Mistrada of the T'bredi scholars, they're teachers entrusted with all the gathered wisdom of the Ayanlak. Their bond of sisterhood is tested when K'reeth falls in love with the Wind Walker Talon. The relationship is further strained when the new peace with the Colonist invaders includes a promise to send home all the children who have been rescued by and raised among the Ayanlak--and K'reeth is the first. Her forced journey to be reunited with a family she doesn't even remember eventually takes both sisters across the continent and into the nest of political intrigue and contention that may tear their world apart--on the very brink of peace and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.

The legend of the Talon continues to grow. When Edrian Rensler regains contact with a hidden village that provides a plant vital to his family's protective elixir, he gains new allies in the battle to defend Rensler. In coming years, the colony world deals with invaders trying to change Rensler's society and soul for their own profit and power. He and the Nightskimmer, Aeza, grow even closer as adulthood brings new challenges. Edrian thinks about the future in new ways, when Aeza takes a mate and urges him to finalize his soul-bond with Aura. Then a series of crises and losses strike the planet, the colony, and the Rensler family, and Edrian risks death to protect and avenge those who hold his heart and soul.

On a remote colony world, the daughter of the Talon, the defender of the people, takes over her father's mask and identity. At the same time, an investigator comes to the colony in search of the Set'ri, to stop them from hastening the disintegration of the galactic civilization. Can the two work together for the sake of the future, or will their necessary deceptions push them apart forever?

It's a time of turmoil in the Central Allied Worlds when the governor of Rensler, his wife and eldest son are forced to attend a "conference" of colonial governors. They leave the youngest son, Edrian, and the colony in the care of his grandfather, the former governor. The two begin a secret project by befriending the sentient, nocturnal Nightskimmers. As Edrian grows up, and unrest intensifies, he learns real heroes sometimes operate in secret. His position as youngest brother of the next governor requires him to present a false face to the world against the day when he must strike out on behalf of the colonists if they're to keep their freedom. When the expected revolution does erupt, Edrian's father and grandfather are taken away, accused of treachery. His older brother flees to the wilderness to lead the rebels, and Edrian and his mother become hostages. Edrian hides behind his false reputation of being sickly and studious, allowing him to move freely at night, freeing prisoners and striking in defense of the colony. Only a boy on the verge of manhood, yet the Talon's reputation has already taken root...

Refugees from the Downfall Wars, separated by centuries of spaceflight, clash on a far distant world. Caught between them are Tayree--native, Wind Walker, visionary, and a recent widow--and Arin, a foundling raised by the invading Colonists. Tayree's visions send her to find Arin, stolen from her tribe when he was an infant. She knows him from childhood dreams...and because his twin brother murdered her husband and infant sons in an attempt to possess her. Arin and Tayree could be part of prophecy to bring peace between the Ayanlak natives and the invading Colonists, but only if their hearts can heal. Tayree has a chance to fill her empty arms, but claiming her rights of recompense from her enemy's family could destroy the future for her tribe and Arin's love for her.