"The aliens have come from somewhere within the holes in space"

United Earth's need for warp drive locked three people in bitter conflict...

Elsa Niebohr, who chose a Balomain planet for Excelsior Corporation's research into sub-space travel...

Surgeon Liutenant Creighton who needed Venturer Twelve to capture an alien being alive...

Commander Tom Bruce - on assignment to protect Balomain Four - who preferred his aliens dead.

The arrival in space of an enormous, shimmering, gold ball with its strange cargo brought problems for them all...