Ary has just been commissioned as an ensign in the Allied SpaceForce and assigned to the S/S Discovery. Like his mother's command, the S/S Asteroid, budget cuts have left the ship on the verge of falling apart, but that's the least of Ary's problems. The truth is, he really doesn't want to be there, on the ship, in outerspace, in SpaceForce.

In the meantime, Sandy's life is in even worse shape. The S/S Asteroid is being decommissioned, while Sandy is forced into an involuntary layoff. Responding to an advertisement to fly for Yber, the former starship captain sets her sights on being an entrepreneur. If only she didn't have that little drinking problem, that dependency on her flask, not to mention that odd disease she picked up somewhere near the Intergalactic Divide; that deadly and virulent strain of the Intergalactic Avian Flu.