Mourning the death of his wife, Captain Aaron Barclay retreats to the solace of the dark and shadowed skies…and eventually to the arms of the attractive new engineer of the Scavenger. However, the new engineer is simultaneously less and more than she seems, and her schemes bring the wrath of the Conglomerate—a multi-galactic corporation—crashing down upon the crew of the Scavenger.

On the run, with bounty hunters from every corner of the galaxy hot on their trail, Barclay enlists some old friends–a pair of dispossessed simulacrums, his flirtatious and scatter-gun toting former co-pilot, and a Pagouline security officer with scaly body, furry face, and six eye stalks—to help him in a desperate gambit to outwit the Conglomerate.