"Jim Endicott is a hero - and he hates it. Using the cybernetic secret weapon encoded in his DNA, he defeated the dreaded Hunzza fleet, but at a terrible cost in lives, both human and alien. Now Jim wants only to live a " normal" life and forget the horrors he witnessed and the heroic destiny he despises."--BOOK JACKET. "But a new and even more terrible conflict is stirring. Earth's former ally, the Alban Packlord, suspects that humans are about to "Leap" - transcend to another level of existence in a mysterious and cataclysmic process that sweeps away entire star systems, laying waste to vast sectors of the universe."--BOOK JACKET. "The Alban Packlord has sent on assassin to hunt him down, knowing that Endicott is the key to human powers - and possibly the dreaded Leap. And the assassin is Jim's friend, Korkal!"--BOOK JACKET. "Jim's only hope lies with the mysterious Leaper cultures themselves. What happens to them after they disappear from our universe? Where do they go? To find out, he must hijack the most powerful warship in the Empire, find the charred worlds the Leapers ruined, and make the Leap himself: the step into chaos that will save humankind or turn the universe itself into a graveyard of burned-out stars."--BOOK JACKET.