Publisher's Synopsis
This is the story of visitors from another world, who come to Earth at the time of the Spanish invasion of the Inca lands.
A small group of linguists from the tenth planet of our solar system (Pontus) are sent to Earth (Brantie) to pass on the words of wisdom from their Council of Philosophy. They are to inform all of those they encounter that space travel past the limits of the moon is not permitted, and that a non-conveyance in respect to these terms of sanction could lead to war.
The story begins in the year 1532 as the Spanish set out to conquer the Inca Empire, with reference being given to earlier intrusions in the years 1526 and 1527.
The episodes of treaty, politics, treachery and mistreatment, handed down by the Spaniards between 1532 and 1544, are made clear, as too are the lives, ways, customs and deities of the natives of Peru.
The story is derived from messages known as quipu, and it's these that aid a man codenamed Dragonfly with his interpretations; he too is on a secret mission, but in the 21st century. Dragonfly takes to space in order to intercept a satellite, Pioneer Eighteen, and becomes slightly unsettled by what he sees in reference to the inscription it carries, 6,000,000,000 km's from Earth.
The story is a meld between science fiction and history. All of that said in reference to the Conquistadors and the Inca is based on facts. Considering that the expansion of the Inca Empire was so dramatic, and writing at that time was unknown to them, it is easy to understand how so many of the references researched have come to contradict one another. The twenty odd different languages spoken at the time of the Spanish intrusion is also a substantial enough reason for discrepancies between facts to be evident.
