The hostility between the Empire, known for having defeated death, and the machine worshiping Rix escalates as the Rix managed to take the Risen Emporers sister hostage. The crisis will change the lives of spaceship captain Laurent Zai, disabled and traumatized by war captivity, Senator Nara Oxham, snidely called the mad senator, Rix super soldier h_rd, forced to become her own person outside her collective society, and low level military clerk Rana Harter, who falls in love with h_rd and starts to doubt her own nation. It will also change the fate of the galaxy as a whole.
