If a problem can be shot, blown up, or otherwise destroyed, Ranger Marcus Maximus is an expert at that. Keeping a ship of scared civilians from tearing itself apart is not that kind of problem. After an unexpected attack on a backwater fuel mining station, one thousand refugees are packed cheek to elbow aboard the Demos. They are forced to hide in the depths of space until help can come, but who is help and who will kill them is a judgement call for the captain, and less people every day agree on who the captain should be. Marcus has to decide who to side with and who to betray because the wrong captain might just turn him over for the bounty on his head.