Down on his luck from a few untimely investments, retired Colonial Forces Captain Jonathan Vandoc accepts a risky offer to pilot a freighter to Kublai; the only neutral port with access to the outer Perseus Arm of our galaxy, an area under control of the Khan. Captain Vandoc's misfortune is only compounded when he is abducted by the Khan's forces and sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor in an undisclosed penal colony, on a forbidden volcanic moon, deep within the Kingdom. Vandoc's action-packed escape is a captivating tale of mystery, self-transcendence, survival, wits, and poetic justice as he not only discovers a clever way off the moon, but that his escape may have been prophesied in the ancient religious texts of the Pawani; settlers who arrived in the area long before the Khan.