“Retaliatory Strike,” the second book in Mikhail Akhmanov’s “Coming from the Darkness” series, tells the story of a raid by an earthly squadron on the colonial worlds of the Faat—aliens who attacked the solar system several years before the events described in the novel. The mighty cruisers of earthlings are able to overcome the road to dozens of parsecs and take revenge on the aggressors, but their weapons are not only plasma throwers, combat robots, missiles and squads of paratroopers. Starfleet officer Paul Corcoran, half human, half creature, is able to see the future and capture thoughts in mental cosmic fields. His strength, his unique gift, combined with the power of earthly ships, will make it possible to expel Faat into the abyss from which they came - beyond the Gap, into another turn of the galactic spiral.