The colonists all report seeing the same thing—Santa Claus. With their maiden voyage behind them, the crew of the Laughing Owl is sent on a mission to ferry scientists to an odd planet where, according to reports, Santa Claus has been sighted, flying high in a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Nobody’s sure what Santa’s up to—he hasn’t delivered a single present. Captain Nick Steele agrees with the scientists who propose that Santa is a mass hallucination and probably the result of some unknown compound in the water, air or food. But Astrogator Cai isn’t so sure, because if Santa is a hallucination, everyone on the planet is having the same hallucination, identical to the smallest detail. As Christmas approaches, will the crew of the Laughing Owl solve the mystery of the hallucinogenic Santa or will the man prove to be real by delivering presents in the dead of night?

“Too bad this isn’t a sci-fi holo. Then, we could just ignore physics.” Something’s afoot. Every Owl-class frigate in the fleet has been summoned to Hevetich, including Laughing Owl. Astrogator Cai and Captain Steele arrive prepared for anything, but they don’t expect the mission Admiral Nbuntu hands to them. Humanity may be ready to strike back at the aggressive Rels, but Cai thinks the plan has more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese, and it’s up to the strategic mind of his husband to salvage the situation yet again. With the war hanging in the balance and an admiral breathing down their necks, will Nick and Cai manage to complete their mission and take the fight to the enemy?

High priest S’Rak successfully prevented his brother’s assassination and discovered, to his delight, that Captain Jisten wasn’t under a vow of purity after all. But nothing is as simple as it should be, and the prince’s health continues to decline, and discovering the cause stirs up far worse trouble than anyone expected.While Jisten might not be under a vow of purity, it stands to reason that a sun priest should be, but that doesn’t seem to bother S’Rak’s enemies. When the high priest appears powerless to stop the senior sun priest’s abuses, allowing himself to be victimized for the sake of the Victory Prophecy, the captain takes matters into his own hands.He has a good crossbow, the help of a Goddess, and a dragon. What could possibly go wrong?