Meet Kai, governor of a distant colony full of convicts. He can't feed these convicts, so they riot. Enter Marq, an alien with an ugly brown root that can solve all Kai's problems? Too good to be true?
Meet Douglas Best, a minister for humanity's most backwater world. Best has a chance to feed his own people. All he has to do is set aside a desert planet for a cult that worships a long-dead actress as a goddess. Oh, and safely remove an abandoned nuclear arsenal. What can possibly go wrong?