The crew of the rescue spaceship "Nadezhda" discovers something in a mysterious and dangerous place called the "Black Belt", after which they become the object of a hunt for special services. All this happens against the backdrop of a flaring conflict between the planet Galleon, where nationalists are coming to power, and the planet Phokos - the homeland of the most developed and most closed people - the aliens.... “This novel has a difficult fate. It took three years to write and was almost completely rewritten twice. Two publishers rejected it because it was not in format. And I, in general, agree with them. I didn't have any target audience in mind, so I have no idea how to position this piece in the market. Formally, this is science fiction, but not entirely. Initially, I planned to simultaneously publish a paper version of the book through prostobook.com, but on September 6, 2011, the company was subjected to political repression. So the paper version exists in a single copy. It is sometimes said about debutant directors that their first film is also their last in the sense that they put all of themselves into it - all their ideas, all facets of their worldview. “The Black Belt” is my first work, and therefore it has everything: secrets, investigation, science, politics, space travel, myths and misconceptions, war, and of course love. Almost all of me is hidden in the labyrinths of meanings of this work.” Dmitry Bratus