A prototype that breaks the rules for how star drives operate. A young man who shouldn't be the one at the helm for this first flight An outcome not even his Grandfather could have foreseen, or had he? He lived a sheltered life until the nav-com flashed the message, ‘Location Unknown. Searching for Star Fix...’ Ensign Nivpul Exavent has dreamt since boyhood of becoming the first person to pilot the next generation star ship his grandfather would one day build. When a surprise call from his grandfather puts Nivpul at the helm, flying solo, he's in his element, until a spacial anomaly strands him far beyond known space and any hope of support, or rescue. The discovery of a small ship tumbling on the edge of a stellar storm offers Nivpul a first hope for charting a path home, and shackles him with a survivor he dare not trust yet promises access to resources he cannot turn down. When her help causes him to stumble upon examples of technology from home, he finds himself thrust into a world his position as a junior officer in a trading fleet never prepared him for, but within which she moved with too much ease.