Deadly decoy

In a sprawling galactic federation where diplomats and warriors mingle, a seasoned security officer works behind a hidden console, his job to keep the capital’s most vital leaders safe. The pressure rivals any Earth‑bound secret service, but the stakes are cosmic—any slip could doom countless worlds. When a blue‑skinned alien of the notoriously volatile Damakoi race steps into his office, the air crackles with suspicion and a reluctant curiosity.

Holdreth Khain claims he’s come not as an assassin but as a warning. He tells the officer that a fellow Damakoi, Zorvash Pedrik, has slipped onto the planet in a stealth craft carrying a theta bomb—a device that radiates death without a conventional explosion. If the weapon reaches the Galactic Capitol, the resulting flare would vaporize delegates from hundreds of worlds. Now the officer must decide whether to trust a member of a race famed for fanatical violence, and race against time to locate the hidden threat before it erupts.