In 2099, the United Nations include Texas, The States, Luna, Mars, and Ceres. The Deep Space Corps went to the stars and returned with friends — the walking celery Spruigh and levitating knotted-snake Bokka. Nanotech medicine pushes life expectancy to 120 years. Babel, the new Internet, hosts virtual reality via brain modem. A career in the DSC is Kell Stark’s dream, but the Corps hides alien threats — until she catches Skirrl dragon-lords circling the System like vultures. That and her meta-human abilities put her in the crosshairs of the telepathic Skirrl. Nothing in Kell’s life has been simple, certainly not her cousin Jimmy’s trial for assaulting her at sixteen. She’s angry, isolated, volatile, and not always herself. Sex is a handy distraction, but it’s not enough. The Commandant of the Corps leaves her to fend for herself, and the warrior Spider hired to guard her has PTSD and a shadowy past. The challenges she faces are daunting, but she has a fire in her belly; she will not yield. This is the story of a young woman fighting to save the human race, her life, and her sanity.