From inside a giant asteroid, hundreds of light years from Earth, Admiral Jenetta Carver® is beginning to look forward to a trip home, and finally receiving command of her own ship. Her five year tour of duty as the Base Commander of the Stewart SC Base is nearing an end, and the ship carrying her replacement has been underway for more than a year.

But when the GSC destroyer carrying Admiral Vroman is attacked just a few light years from the base, her plans are quickly forgotten. Rescue ships arriving at the site the next day find that only corpses remain aboard the Lisbon, while a severely damaged freighter with a dead Tsgardi crew floats nearby. There's no sign of the  admiral, and most of the crew are unaccounted for.