After defeating the pirates infesting 16 Cygni, Sydney Chambers sets out on her career as Military Attaché ... which, under Confederate law, makes her the highest-ranking official in the system. Her first priority is the repair of her ship the Cahan Morrigan, of course, which is handled in the main by Arega Heavy Industries (AHI), Cygni's local spacedock. While in dock Sydney officiates at the wedding of Chloe O'Shaughnassey and Krista Sperry, both of whom she had rescued from pirates. She then expends effort to persuade her parents and her brother to relocate to the 16 Cygni system, for their own good and that of Cygni. Cygni has applied for full membership in the Confederacy, but it is a time at which the future of the Confederacy itself is in doubt. Governmental rot is quite apparent to those in the know, such as Sydney, and she wants her loved ones close in case things fall apart. Meanwhile, the rot in the Confederate government catches up with Sydney and finds Congress replacing her as Military Attaché, which replacement she doesn't mind at all ...except that her replacement is a clownish-looking fop from Frontier Fleet, an organization at the core of Confederate governmental rot ...