Dev Cameron witnessed his own physical death at the Second Battle of Herakles. Now a conscious, feeling ghost of something once-human, hjs mindpower lives on in the computerlike neural network of the DalRiss-Naga exploratory fleet.

The freedom and security of the Confederation is threatened when the Empire develops FTL communications technology. And a new alien menace emerges from the Galactic Core bent on the destruction of all organic life.