Trainer Toni Jacobs and her auguar, Nzinga are headed out to the Bernard System to protect the denizens of Arborea, the only other oxy-carb planet in the human sphere of influence, from interplanetary corporate claim jumpers. She's also responsible for keeping the barwolves from forming a planet-wide gestalt that will either destroy the whole race in a frenzied bloodbath, or create a super-brain that will take over all of humanity. She also has to deal with the fact that her protegé, Andrew Collingwood, is becoming a forceful, handsome, and intelligent adult.