The Grace O'Malley, a military transport vessel crewed by cadets and stranded in a distant galaxy, has settled into her mission: find a way home. Her first officer, fourteen-year-old Bastien Devereaux, is optimistic and fully supports using the vessel's ample cargo space to transport goods between the local alien civilizations. Doing so might provide a lead as to how the Grace became stranded so far from home and how she might make it back to the Milky Way. But dangers lurk in the dark...