"What am I doing here?" Ensign John Grimes asked himself. There he was, a Federation Space Survey Service commissioned officer, without authorization, on board a stolen spaceship using the most advanced weapons - which had been pirated from his own service - and chasing on an illegal revenge mission after allies of his own Federation. Besides, he was fraternizing - or trying to - with a recruiter for the secessionist Rim World Navy.

Grimes couldn't even say he was forced into it, for, though fresh out of the Academy with his head full of rules and regulations, he had actually volunteered to break every one of them.

What a way to start a space officer's career - if he lived long enough to have one!