Captain Charlotte Brant has to hold her little ship and its ragtag crew together for a perilous run through Rebel space. They're the best that the Federation has to offer, which says something about the sorry state of the Federation.

Picking up right at the ending of "Crime of Shadows," Mazeka's trip home is interrupted, and he finds himself flung into a whole new world, in a new battle against the forces of Darkness and Madness.