A Black hole in space. And piercing through, a beam of ruby light brighter than a hundred moons. Was it the eye of the face of God, or the blood-red sun of our first intergalactic visitors? The delicate mission of the warship MACARTHUR -- to seek out and confront an extraterrestrial world where eerie, silent beings defy known biology... where miniature creatures, idiots savants, are used as deadly weapons... and where reassuring smiles hide a planetary secret of devastating universal impact.