Ben Jeapes

Michael Gilmore is made captain of a ship that will take the UK-1's (a gigantic space station) representative to the convocation to which a mysterious technologically advanced alien race has invited human beings - saying they want to share their planet with human beings after a selection process. Gilmore is a man passed over in his career and he feels he has finally made the grade - this is very illustrious position and he will be carrying the Prince (of the now defunct UK kingdom). Gilmore finds that there's a lot more going on behind the scenes than he expects for a supposed peaceful delegation - like there are weapons fitted on his spaces ship and all other delegate's ships. The aliens, the First Breed - also known as Rusties, since they are reddish and always flaking, put representatives on each delegate's ship in order to interview the ships' crews and understand humans further. Gilmore is suspicious of their motives, as well as the delegates intentions, but he also haunted by the spectre of failure - making him doubt his own decisions. What follows fulfulls his greatest fears and he has to make risky decisions that imperil his crew and the delegations. In the meantime, the aliens are paying strict attention to the human's dangerous intrigues. Technology is lightly touched upon, but you get a close-up view of living in cramped space ships and how frail they really are. Anyone who likes conspiracies, intrigue and boxes within boxes will enjoy this book.… (more)