More than anything astronaut cadet Cassi Requin wants to earn a position in the Alliance Expeditionary Fleet. And she's almost made it. But during an interstellar training flight Cassi investigates a distress call, directly disobeying the orders of her instructors. In doing so she leads her crew into a pirate trap, a battle, and a disaster of a crash on the surface of an alien world. With the only qualified astronauts on board locked in survival stasis, Cassi is promoted into her first command—rank, authority, and responsibility. Food and water are in short supply. Their spacecraft hull is compromised. Rescue is light years away. With bloodthirsty pirates in pursuit, Cassi must lead her crew across hostile ground seething with predators to seek the safety of a remote survey outpost that might be their only chance to return home.