Stardust & Mirrors

A galaxy away on a tropical island, Duncan Blackburn wasn't unhappy when he heard Empress Evangeline hadn't died two years ago, but he certainly wasn't going to get drawn back into her problems on the eve of war. Running around as a back-channel diplomat was not on his agenda, and nothing could convince him to trade fire over some dirt clod far from any homeworld. Yet he is a little curious when his sometimes-hunting-him bounty-hunter girlfriend, a guardian dismissed for war crimes, and a classified first contact all cross his path. What harm could there be in a little poking around?