THEIR SHIP IS DAMAGED . . .Ethan Ortane has just met his long lost son, Atton, but the circumstances could have been better. After a devastating bio-attack and the ensuing battle, they've fled Dark Space aboard the Defiant to get away from the crime lord, Alec Brondi, who's just stolen the most powerful vessel left in the fleet, a five-kilometer-long gladiator-class carrier called the Valiant.They need reinforcements to face Brondi, but beyond Dark Space, the comm relays are down, and they are low on fuel.AND THERE'S NO WAY OUTWith Brondi behind them, they can't go back, but Sythian Space is fraught with entire fleets of cloaked alien ships. They can't leave the last human sector in the galaxy to the crime lords, so they must cross Sythian Space in a damaged, undermanned cruiser with no cloaking device. Making matter worse, trouble is brewing aboard the Defiant, dropping their chances of survival from slim . . . to none.