Captain Evridiki "EB" Bardacki wants nothing more than to quietly ride off into the sunset with his fiancé, his crew, and his adopted daughter, Trace. But when a strange message brings them all to Trace's home star system of Icem, it turns out the fragments of the crime syndicate that kidnapped her have one last trick to play. An old enemy has betrayed their former compatriots and set into motion events that may allow EB to save hundreds of children like his daughter from the traffickers who stole them away. When that enemy shows up dead, the crew of must decide whether to chase the leads left by a dead monster or protect themselves. Those leads will take EB and Trace into the dens of crime lords, the homes of judges, the hearts of secret bases-and the presence of the foster parent Trace ran away from at the beginning of everything...