Winner of the Aurora and HOMer Awards. Nominee for the Nebula, Hugo, and Seiun awards. For almost twenty years, space research has been rapidly developing, and new contacts are being established with extraterrestrial intelligent beings. All this thanks to a chain of mysterious artificially created interdimensional ties. No one knows who created these interstellar portals, but they made the far reaches of space easily accessible. The commander of the huge research starship Starplex, Keith Lansing, believes that space has become even too easily accessible. And when an unknown ship passes through the new screed - perfectly smooth, without portholes, seams or visible engines - the already battle-worn Starplex can become a stumbling point from which a new interstellar war will begin... Plunge into an epic space adventure, complete technical descriptions of starships, with realistic physics, human problems and inhuman mysteries.