All Reese Eddings, captain of the private trading vessel, the TMS Earthrise, wants is to make an honest living, preferably without too much excitement (read: ways to incur more repair bills). But when someone calls in a debt from her past, she finds herself embroiled in not just in the break-up of some parts of the slaving ring, but deep in the problems of the Eldritch, a xenophobic race known to almost no one. Her entree into this world? Hirianthial Sarel Jisiensire, one of the few Eldritch to leave the homeworld for the Alliance's broad spaces. Through him, she finds herself knee-deep in politics, conflict... and even war.