A Talent for War
Christopher Sim had been the legendary commander of the force that withstood an alien attack that threatened all humanity. After years of struggle against a stronger enemy, he was abandoned by his crew because they considered the cause hopeless. But Sim collected a handful of volunteers and won a major engagement near Rigel, stemming the tide and encouraging other terrestrial worlds to join the fight. Despite the success, he and his fabled ship Corsarius, and the volunteers, known to history only as the Seven, were lost in that final battle.
Two hundred years later, a survey ship discovers something so odd in a distant nebula that a massive coverup begins. Gabriel Benedict, an archeologist, thinks he knows what has been found. But he dies in an accident before revealing his suspicions, and it falls to Gabe's nephew, Alex, a quiet antiquities dealer, to take up the hunt. He knows only that it is somehow connected to the war against the aliens.