The Gap series comes to a shattering climax in a cataclysmic showdown that will mean either the survival of all humankind . . . or its absorption and annihilation.

Drifting in space, sabotaged by a crewman tainted with an alien mutagen, the starship Trumpet broadcasts to any ship in range the formula of the mutagens antidotea drug the United Mining Companies has suppressed for its own sinister purposes. Aboard the crippled ship, the fugitives and survivorsMorn Hyland, an ex-UMCP cop, Angus Thermopyle, a newly freed cyborg, and unwilling saboteur Ciro Vasaczkmust make a desperate gamble. Pursued by the UMCP ship Punisher, threatened by the return of an Amnion combat vessel, they will hijack the police craft by any means necessaryand take it back to Earth.