It has been nearly ten years since the starship "Phoenix "returned to Alpha, the station orbiting the world of the "atevi," which had been abandoned following a rift between a faction of the station's inhabitants and the spacers' Pilot's Guild. The unexpected return of the "Phoenix "has forever changed the lives of both "atevi "and Mospheirans, for over the ensuing decade, the captains of the "Phoenix "have brought both species into space. Their motivation seemed simple: Reunion Station, a human station in another sector of space, had been destroyed by aliens.
But on his deathbed, the senior captain of the "Phoenix "admits that he lied to the crew--that Reunion was merely damaged, not destroyed, and many people may have survived. At this disclosure, the crew rebels and forces the "Phoenix "to undertake a rescue mission to Reunion. Onboard the rescue mission are Bren Cameron, brilliant human "paidhi "representing the "atevi "ruler Tabini-aiji, and Tabini's grandmother Ilisidi, a fearsome and ambitious "atevi "leader with an agenda of her own. Trapped in a distant star system with little fuel left, facing a bellicose alien ship, how can Bren help to avoid interspecies war when the notoriously secretive Pilot's Guild aboard Reunion Station refuse to cooperate, and may have kept the inhabitants of their own station ignorant of their true situation?
The long-running "Foreigner "series can also be enjoyed by more casual genre readers in sub-trilogy installments. "Explorer "is the 6th "Foreigner "novel. It is also the 3rd book in the second subtrilogy.