Three Kings Series by Jack L. Chalker

The interstellar wormholes failed and silence fell across a third of the galaxy. And when Karl Woodward's starship The Mountain found a lost colony, a stranded criminal mob struck, determined to seize his ship.

They call it the worlds of the Three Kings, a legendary star system laden with riches beyond imagining. Now, one determined band of seekers desperately in debt are determined to find the Three Kings -- if the galactic underworld's repo men don't get them first!

THE SECRET OF THE THREE KINGS--REVEALED AT LASTFor centuries, interstellar prospectors had searched for the fabled Worlds of the Three Kings, the lost El Dorado of the galaxy. But if any found it, they were never heard from again. The mad cyborg Prophet, Ishmael Hand, discovered the mysterious system, with artifacts indicating a superhuman technology, and he had refused to reveal its location before vanishing forever into history.Two more recent expeditions have found the Three Kings... moreTHE SECRET OF THE THREE KINGS--REVEALED AT LASTFor centuries, interstellar prospectors had searched for the fabled Worlds of the Three Kings, the lost El Dorado of the galaxy. But if any found it, they were never heard from again. The mad cyborg Prophet, Ishmael Hand, discovered the mysterious system, with artifacts indicating a superhuman technology, and he had refused to reveal its location before vanishing forever into history.Two more recent expeditions have found the Three Kings. A starfaring evangelist--Doctor Karl Woodward, preacher and leader of the starship The Mountain--followed a clue and found it, but never returned. Then a spacegoing salvage team followed Woodward's trail, and also vanished.Now a chance encounter between what's left of the once-mighty human military with an inexplicable alien force has brought an armed expedition to the third planet of the Three Kings, Kaspar. They will join forces with the survivors of the first two expeditions, who have been marooned both by alien powers and by human treachery, as they at last encounter the alien minds behind the mysterious triple planetary system--and face a decision that may determine the fate of the entire human race! less