Salvor Gupta, a freelance space salvager, feels like he's finally going to have a good day. With the help of his ever-present, but somewhat annoying, AI navigational implant named Merv, Salvor has filled his ship's cargo hold with salvage, worth tens of thousands of credits, from a job out in the deep dark. Returning to Homestead, a giant orbiting ship around Saturn's moon Titan, he quickly learns that he's not in for a good day after all, and that information, long thought to be corrupted deep within his AI's memory banks holds a promise of salvation, if he can keep ahead of whoever wants to see him dead and make sure that promise is never kept…