The Key to Karahool

Andi Altarus is sitting in a classroom at the Space Corps Academy listening to a boring lecture on antiterroism when another mind tries to invade hers. As a highly skilled telepath, she adroitly repels the attack and even identifies her attacker. It's the guest lecturer, the man they call The Director. Their meeting sparks an adventure that sends Andi away on a starship to the planet Karahool, inhabited by crystalline creatures with minds as adroit as hers. Along the way she stumbles across a smuggling ring, finds a dead body, is murdered twice and teams up with a notorius traitor. He has his own plans for Karahool and for manipulating her into a coup d'état on his home planet.