Thucydides Trap: A point when one great power threatens to displace another, war is unavoidable…Thracius "Tracy" Belmanor has struggled to do his patriotic duty in the wake of the loss of the love of his life, Empress Mercedes de Arango. Amid a desperate war, the Solar League cannot afford his grief, nor the political instability of admitting the depth of their relationship.It is for duty alone, both as a soldier and as a father, that he has entered into a loveless marriage that makes him part of the royal family to shepherd his son and the Solar League towards what seems to be humanity's triumph against its foe.However, a new danger has appeared that will lead to extinction on a galactic scale, and once again both Tracy and Mercedes must place duty over their own desires.