Primary Inversion

Sauscony 'Soz' Valdoria commands a squadron of Jagernauts -- neurologically enhanced empath-soldiers wired into biomechanical combat systems -- for the Skolian Empire, locked in a long war against the Eubian Traders, whose ruling caste of Aristos feed on the suffering of empaths like her. On shore leave on a neutral world, Soz meets and falls for Jaibriol Qox, heir to the Trader throne, only to discover he secretly shares her own rare empathic gift -- a connection that becomes urgent when he reveals his father's plan to commit genocide against a rebellious colony. The first novel in Catherine Asaro's Saga of the Skolian Empire.