Avanaux

AD 2179 It's been three long years since Hickory Lace was sacked as a commander in the Alien Corps and commenced a new teaching career at its parent body, the Saint Philip Research Academy. Naturally, when she is asked to head up a task-force to the politically volatile yet strategically important world of Prosperine, she wonders why. The SPRA and the Corps were created by the Vatican in 2099 after the discovery of an ancient manuscript that led to a new perception of the nature of God. Since then, the Academy's mission has been to search out distant galaxies looking for incarnations of Jesus Christ. But Earth and its trading partners aren't the only ones interested in Prosperine. Hickory and her team discover a plot by the non-aligned planets to seize control of Prosperine's unique resource - a metal called crynidium that is vital for faster than light travel. The fate of many worlds is in the balance. Hickory needs to foil the aliens' plans and stop a revolution. On top of that she must find out what the mystic known as the Teacher is up to and decide whether he is a fraud-or perhaps the very person the Academy was created to find.