Ransom in the Rock

Fifteen-year-old LILEELA is happy on the planet Karkar, where she was sent ten years ago for repair of a spinal cord injury. Now her mother, the ancestral ruler of Gannah, and her half-Karkar father have negotiated to pay their debt and bring their daughter home. But Lileela doesn’t want to go. She resents them for what she sees as their abandonment of her, and though she has to go home against her will, she vows to leave at her first opportunity.

On Earth, a Special Starforces team led by FARIS is ordered to capture an insurrectionist, PHILIP DENGEL, and bring him in for interrogation. One problem: Dengel’s crime is preaching Christianity, and Faris is a secret convert. Faris leads his team to capture him, but then, through subterfuge of which he is not proud, he steals a starship and whisks Dengel toward Gannah.

The Gannahans discover the Karkar who delivered Lileela have a secret motive for being there: they plan to annihilate the settlement and take all Gannah’s rich resources for themselves.

The settlers have no protection against their overwhelming opponent but that which God provides–which proves to be more than sufficient.

Faris’s team is surprised to find the disabled Karkar ship orbiting Gannah. They seek–and receive–asylum there and offer their stolen vessel to the defeated Karkar so they can return home.

Now of age, and with her debt paid, Lileela is free to return to return with them if she wants. But through all the upheavals she’s recently endured, she’s come to grips with who she is–and Who God is. She decides to stay on Gannah, where she now knows she belongs.

The fact that she’s keenly attracted to Faris might have something to do with it.