 Instead of vacationing he travels to Marine Corps Headquarters on Earth to find out why 34th FIST seems to have been quietly "quarantined," with nobody being rotated out of the unit, even though it is considered a hardship post.This potentially career-endangering "back channel" trip reveals some very scary facts.In the third plotline the Skinks visit a world only partially explored by humans and find a pre-technological sentient race.