Gilbert Gosseyn, the null-A genius of the Earth-Venus war, never realized that this interplanetary war was but a borrowed incident in a greater conflict until he was thrust onto the galactic battlefield as a mere pawn. But in picking Gosseyn as "expendable," those cosmic opponents unleashed forces they had never dreamed existed. One was the entrance of a powerful third party in the war. The second was the ability of certain other pawns to foresee…