The enemy killed everyone on her ship. Except her. That was their mistake.

Forty years after the Battle of Orinoco, Orien Satra - son of Jake and Andrea - is the XO of a heavy cruiser in the Rim Defense Force. His sister Ligeia is the Prime Minister of RimFed; and Ligeia's daughter Miranda is a newly commissioned ensign on the distant scout ship Troublemaker. In a crazy-quilt pattern of war, treachery, and the razor's edge of survival, their destinies are about to smash together. Ambushed by a sinister enemy, the Troublemaker is destroyed. More than 1,100 lights from home, badly injured, alone in a lifeboat – somehow, Miranda survives. Little does the young ensign know her destiny holds the key to the future of the entire Rim - and the lives of billions!