The Cingulum

Haakon: formerly a naval captain on the losing side against the Bahadur, ex-smuggler, ex-quarry-slave. Rama: almost-legendary mast criminal, Amazonian genetic cross between woman and cat. Blackmailed by Timur Khan Bey, most powerful and ruthless of the Bahadur, Haakon and Rama must lead a team of misfits into the Cingulum, one of the last star systems to hold our against Bahadur. But the Cingulum is like no other place in the universe, for among its planets circle artificial constructs left by a race that is believed to have disappeared from the galaxy before man first stepped into space.