The galaxy is at a breaking point. A resistance is dawning. Captain Jaya Mill and her band of rebels have been on the run for a year, their following growing in the beleaguered outer colonies. But every encounter with the Union Navy leaves them licking their wounds, as the Union amasses a horde of enhanced marines. Tynan rushes to find the key to disrupting the virus that bestows superior abilities to the Union's chosen soldiers, but he fears Jaya will become a casualty of their own weapon. Meanwhile, Mara has returned to her people, attempting to bring some relief to the suffering nareian underclasses even as the empress and her rivals try to draw Mara into their scheming. When a young politician begins to agitate for democracy in the empire, an unlikely alliance begins...but it may be too late to transform Narei without total collapse. And back on Argos, Luka is working undercover to infiltrate the Union Navy, until his identity is revealed. He abandons his life on Argos and searches for Jaya, seeking to unite the two prongs of the resistance. He's not the only one looking for her among the stars. Augustus has a score to settle. But so does Jaya.