A Matter of Importance

A routine traffic call on Varenga becomes a race against time when Sergeant Madden learns that the passenger ship Cerberus has suffered a catastrophic overdrive failure and is limping toward a refuge planet. Worse, one of its passengers is the fiancée of his son Timmy, forcing the aging police officer to mix professional calm with private dread. In this far-future world, space emergencies are handled like any other civic matter, with police ships, careful procedure, and no room for spectacle. Madden and Patrolman Willis trace the ship's impossible landing on the ocean world of Procyron III, where scorched rocket trails and vanishing evidence suggest sabotage, not accident. Following the clues, they uncover a hidden uranium mine and signs that the long-disputed Huks may still be active, secretly operating beyond human oversight. As the investigation widens, Madden realizes the Cerberus was likely seized after its crew discovered the operation and then sent onward with replacement rockets. With the ship missing and an unsurveyed system, Sirene 1432, emerging as the likeliest hiding place, Madden and Willis set out to confront a buried alien secret before the rescue becomes a deeper, more dangerous mystery. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.