A flicker in the night sky erupts into a firestorm as the starship disintegrates and releases its full payload of unrefined hydrogen. With its debris strewn across Terra Primus's largest city, Paelagus, the newly formed Union struggles to figure out what brought down the hydrogen refueling tanker. They request the expertise of the Lithion Starship Crash Investigation Unit, and Nevin and his talented team of investigators head off-world to help solve the mystery. They knew the civil war on Terra Primus would be a very real threat to their safety, but the call to duty has them seeing more action than they intended. As the wreckage is slowly recovered, they are at a loss to explain the crash. Adding to the mystery are swirling rumors of Grovlic androids and TPRA bombings. Nevin leads his colleagues on a wild mission that pushes their intellects to their limits, and after an exhaustive investigation, they find themselves with just one card left to play . . .