Ken Jacklin is a soldier who has died many times. Rossa Corman has a communications talent that depends on pain. Together they must make an excruciating journey via makeshift matter transmitter and persuade a distrustful, war-torn planetary colony to halt research into Anomalous Physics -- the maverick science whose side effects include continent-busting nullbombs, exploding suns, and a mysterious final weapon called the Devourer. Gradually Jacklin and Corman realize that what Earth has told them about their own mission is a labyrinth of bluff and lies....

A high-tension hard SF thriller.