Newly promoted, Sergeant Lucy Lockwood is assigned to the Fool's Ransom - a Republic starship captained by a young man all too familiar to her. The ship's mission is simple - to wipe out the slave trade on the planets outside of Republic control. But things turn out more complicated than they seemed, as the outlaws are only growing stronger and bolder. As the Fool's Ransom investigates the source of that newfound power, they stumble across some startling revelations - dangers the Republic had hoped were still many years away.