First Power Play

As the New Earth Organization rebuilds an Earth shattered by the Martian Wars, NEO sympathizer Kemal Gavilan receives a corpse and a cryptic message from the asteroids. The Mercurian prince sends master pirate Black Barney to find out what he can, but the answer is hot: they've uncovered a weapon that can focus the sun's energy for global annihilation! The Martian and Venusian powers insist they're innocent, Kemal is forced to rejoin the royal family he once rejected to learn the awful truth.

Set in the conceivable twenty-fifth century world of Buck Rogers, First Power is written by John Miller, a contributor to Fantastic Stories and WILD CARDS short-story anthologies and author of Dead Man's Hand.