It all began as a routine port-of-call at a friendly alien planet....

Ensign Carol Hansen is six months out of Fleet University, and six months out of a toxic relationship that made no sense to anyone but her. Serving aboard Liberty is everything she had aspired to. But that sweet time comes to an abrupt, violent end when Liberty is destroyed in an unexpected attack. Carol is lucky enough to be "ashore" in the alien city below, and barely survives the death raining down from space.

Can she overcome the shock and grief of loss and meet the challenge of combat leadership? Is she ready to transform herself from raw ensign to battle-tested warrior? Can she likewise face up to that failed relationship, and perhaps see with more seasoned new eyes someone who had always been right beside her?

David Powell, his dreams of a Fleet commission crushed by a family tragedy, is pulled into the same unforeseen conflict. He must now find his way back to his true future. And, somehow, to the woman he fell for that first day of freshman year.

Caught at the sudden and violent collision of three cultures, they find themselves inexorably drawn into Earth's first interstellar war, a war for which no one is fully prepared.