Homeward by Night

Clay Gilbert and his friends had a job: they were explorer pod pilots, helping Humanity colonize a star system far from Earth. Then they met their first, second, and third sets of aliens, and they became Humanity's first fighter pilots. Now, with the Bluehorse colony more or less safe and secure behind them, Clay and his command superior and the love of his life, Rachel, return to Earth to report. They brave Primoids and mouthholes and romantic snits and jealousies petty and not so petty--as well as the single greatest event in Human history, and not in a fun way.