Human descendants of the Earth colony ship Destiny face an incursion into their area of space by a powerful race. The Imperium Empire, which is ruled by the Krackus, is one wormhole away from the humans, and a rim mining planet, Kilmer, would be the alien race’s first contact.

Fear rules the company leader. The Krackus represent danger. They sail powerful battleships. Moreover, the Naiad Council reels from the news that an alien race abuts their space. For centuries, humans in the Axis Crossing region thought they were alone.

In the Thartath system, Julien directs more outpost fleet ships to support the Naiads. The fleet is intent on turning back any incursion by the Krackus through the wormhole.

Julien and Cordelia continue to deal with the Thartath sisters. Fleet members discover a means of deterring the second-gen sisters from their paths to dominate biological races. Already, it serves to help one human mining planet in Axis Crossing.

On Naiad, Samuel, a digital entity brought to sentience, chooses to occupy his time as an entrepreneur. He offers his services to research teams who purchase time on the powerful Densing Array.

During Samuel’s work, he discovers a data glitch in the array’s recording, which he investigates. His requests for comparative data to verify his findings are met with resistance. Undeterred, he sends a message to Cremsylon: “There might be another race beyond a nearby Naiad anomaly.”