AustLit

'Commander Hickory Lace and her team, space pilot Jess Parker and the young genius Gareth Blanquette, are back on the planet Prosperine. This time, their destination is the Scarf - a six hundred miles band of floating islands and reefs on the equator. The islands are covered with swamp and jungle and connected by a thick blanket of floating creepers and vines.

'High altitude scans show the deeper into the Scarf you travel, the more inhospitable it becomes. The Agency believes the Scarf is inhabited only by insects and lower life forms. The high surface radiation would mean humanoids could not survive there for long.

'Alarm bells ring out when a Bikashi jet is sighted in the area. The Agency fear that alien forces may be on a mission to retrieve the legendary sword of the long dead heroine, Connat-sEra-Haagar. The sword bestows great power to any who wield it and was sent to the Scarf for safekeeping following the earlier defeat of the Pharlaxian rebel forces. In the hands of the Bikashi, it would pose a threat to the Agency's plans.' (Publication summary)