He was a very long way from home: Six long weeks cooped up in a spaceship left Jared more than ready to use his own wings to fly. But Hector was a busy planet-a place of big buildings and bigger bureaucracy. Nothing was simple or quick on this odd world. Jared had come to get his home world designated in the governmental records for that region of space. It was to be set aside for the current population and to give those of the Seven Settlements control over their own world. It had seemed easy enough-an adventure, a lark. But all the information he had received from the crew of the Athena Nike had not prepared him for the things that would happen to him once he submerged himself in the workings of a place so very foreign to his nature. Jared had known it would not be a quick trip, but his adventures on Hector were far different from anything he could possibly have imagined. Now if he could just make it back home in one piece.