On Zelos II a man and a woman are held prisoner in a dark cell, each fighting their way for survival at the hands of Imperial captors-and a chance for escape that could cost one of them their life. On the tortured landscape of Ryloth, Fenig Nabon awaits a ship of women warriors to complete a dangerous deal: the smuggling of a troupe of dancers to the homeworld of the Hutts-only to get more than she bargained for. And Senator Garm Bel Iblis, believed dead at the hands of an Imperial assassin, teams up with Hal Horn in a duel against the Empire's most dangerous agent. At stake are the plans for a terrifying new weapon called the Death Star-and the fate of both the Empire and the New Republic.