The problem of separating the friends from the enemies was a major one in the conquest of space as many a dead spacer could have testified. A tough job when you could see an alien and judge appearances; far tougher when they were only whispers on the wind.
The space ships were miracles of power and precision; the men who manned them, rich in endurance and courage. Every detail had been checked and double checked; every detail except--
a colony ship en route to planet Athena 500 light years away is attacked by the Gerns, an alien race with a deep hatred of humans. The colonists are enslaved and some are taken to work on Athena while others are taken to the prison planet Ragnarok. Ragnarok, however, turns out to be an inhospitable world, populated by deadly, aggressive creatures. The novels follows the stranded humans through several generations as they try to survive there.
