A catastrophic engine failure strands an interstellar space ship in the lonely void between solar systems, injures the mission commander, and reawakens old divisions among the crew. Over two hundred years later, the people of the Drake are running out of time, resources, and hope. Sera was an apprentice healer in the Kingdom of Humanity until she turned to forbidden technology to heal a dying child. Arrested, convicted of heresy, and awaiting public execution, she is granted a chance to survive if only she will carry a message beyond the borders of the kingdom. Acting on instructions from the king's demonic court jester, Sera sets off into a mysterious land hidden behind the walls of her prison cell. Dominic was a veteran security operative for the Melder Consensus until his body was destroyed in a dissident attack. Now he is trapped in a synthetic body that he loathes, kept from suicide only by the love of a woman and the thin hope that he can still serve the Captain. That opportunity arrives when a dying woman falls into his life, carrying a message from someone who had been thought dead for centuries. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the Captain plots to save his ship from destruction, by any means necessary.