Power Play

At last the living, breathing, sentient world of Petaybee was about to become a recognized and independent planet. Colonel Yana Maddock, now married to Sean Shongili, was bidden to the meeting on Gal Three to give testimony and discuss the future of the miracle snow and ice world where every human, animal, and plant lived in harmony with the entity that was Petaybee itself. But their arch-enemy, Matthew Luzon, who had been humiliated and nearly destroyed when Petaybee took her revenge on him, had still not given up his designs on the rich, varied, and unusual world. He was determined to destroy its chances of autonomy. And so Petaybee found itself swamped with visitors, hunters eager to kill the wildlife, merchants and scientists ready to strip the land, and religious malcontents wanting to 'talk' to the planet. And then Yana - pregnant with her first child - was kidnapped by the infamous and enigmatic pirate, Onidi Louchard - and Yana's ransom was to be the world of Petaybee itself.