This isn't the homecoming Spacefarer Nix Kaphale expected. He and his ship Krillian are deregistered from the Spacefarer's Guild. The vacation he's promised his Terran hosts Ellie and Rory Jordon to the Human Sector of the Intergalactic Empire has become a nightmare.
Ellie is the only legal adult on board the ship since Nix is still indentured and Rory hasn't come of age yet.
Rory's modifications to Krillian have rendered it "unfit" for service even though he developed a major breakthrough that gave its FTL drive a 1:1 time dilation to real time ratio.
Now their future and that of the Spacefarer Guild itself rests in the hands of the most brilliant brat in the galaxy.