Genellan -- beautiful, Earthlike world where intelligent cliff-dwellers waited in fear for the day the warlike bear people would return...Genellan -- the only refuge for a ship's crew and a detachment of spacer marines, abandoned by a fleet fleeing from alien attackers.Stranded on Genellan, the humans struggled to make a home for themselves until -- they hoped against hope -- the fleet could rescue them. Lt. Sharl Buccari tried desperately to hold on to the threads of command over both the civilians and the marines -- to keep her people together.Winter was coming. No one knew if the winged natives would be friend or foe. And now the bear people were returning, bent on destroying every human -- but not before stealing the secret of hyperlight drive, the key to interstellar flight...