After the rebellion on Gertie, Administrator Tannin's assistant Phuri escapes back to Earth on a messenger vessel with machinations of his own in mind. Arranging a meeting with an SSC admiral, he weaves a web of lies about what really happened in the Swordbelt. Now Captain Carter, Captain Mephista, and their crews are all considered traitors, and are thought to have betrayed their own species by working with the alien race known as the Bwain. Unbeknownst to anyone back on Earth however, their conflicts with the Bwain were largely just a huge misunderstanding, and both the humans and the Bwain are going to have to work together to stop an even larger threat from the Bwain's former slave masters, a race of multi-dimensional beings known only as the First Ones. The First Ones have existed since the dawn of the universe, and are capable of moving between any of the twelve dimensions. In order for them to break back through into the physical universe, they need raw materials, and they need help to gather those raw materials. As such, they reanimate the corpse of Aric Keith on the wreckage of the Fates' Winds, and force him to cultivate the materials they need. With Captain Carter now in command on the Bwainhome, he and his crew must discover the secrets of the massive ship if they're to have any chance at all of facing down the impending assault from Sol Space Command, and the reemergence of an ancient alien species whose only motivations seem to be an endless hunger, and a desire to enslave every living thing in the galaxy.