The Discovery of Tonylobons

The Glorious Moon, the newest Federation naval cutter, is crewed and ready for shakedown when Captain Lucas Mussuclio boards. His first mission is to test a new drive so secret that no component was previously tested. The first test is an almost catastrophic failure, possibly sabotage. After the crew investigates the cause and repairs the damage, the test succeeds and Captain Mussuclio expects to surprise pirates in the Cassie Sector, but receives dispatched to rescue an Explorer class vessel held by an unknown force projected from a planet. The same force that is holding the first ship imprisons them. The crew ascertains the frequencies used to control both ships and counters the force. After both ships are free, the Glorious Moon jumps to the Cassie Sector to discover a system previously hidden by dust from a shrinking Pollux, a system of a star and planets, one colonized five hundred years before, where a native sentient species resides according to the colonists. When the Captain reports, he is called back to base for an inquiry.