Battlefield in Black

Captain Jon McPartland, commanding the battle cruiser Avenger, returns toward home while anticipating a reunion with Almira Denton and instead finds his forward sensors and communications reporting an inexplicable void where his home planet should be. Crew and engineers scramble to identify failing instruments and baffling negative radar returns, while the captain grapples with the political context of a largely disarmed System and Denton's ambitions to influence central authorities on defense. Personal tensions about being treated as a clinical subject intersect with fast-moving technical mysteries, forcing characters to confront the inadequacy of conventional weapons and established safeguards against an unseen, pervasive threat.