In our latest exciting installment, Captain Butterflies-are-Free Peace Sincere, her underage homicidal sidekick Baijon Stardust, and the not-quite stowaway and part-time spy Berathia Notevan, flee the deep-space station called Toystore instants before it is destroyed. With her ship's navicomp blanked, Butterfly's only choice is to rely on Archive—the copy of an Old Fed Library that is currently eating her brain—for the good numbers to fly Ghost Dance to safety. Archive's idea of a safe space is the Capitol of the Old Federation, and things go downhill from there, because on jump later, Buttefly and Ziggy find themselves in Thronespace, listening to the Prince-Elect of the Phoenix Empire making them an offer they can't refuse.