Starship Gagarin was on a mission to meet and befriend the aliens of the galaxy, but that all went wrong when they found Santosia. Chairman Kafando and all the crew of Gagarin were drawn into the intractable conflict on that planet, but, with the help of Captain Kriss and the Starship Venture, they were able to bring their captured crewmates home and open the possibility of peace in the future. But this solution drew the attention of the civilization that sent the Venture--the utopia known as the Union of Sovereign Planets, and they were not happy. Gagarin is summoned to the core worlds of the USP with an offer they cannot refuse: find the Venture and bring Captain Kriss to justice and Earth will be rewarded with a peaceful and positive relationship with this powerful space civilization. Chairman Kafando, having built a strong bond of comradery with Kriss, does not want to go along with this, but his fellow department chairs think this may be an offer too good to reject. Gagarin and her crew must acclimatize to a galaxy that is not as peaceful and socially advanced as they had prepared themselves for. The crew of Gagarin is truly international (and interplanetary), with comrades from Burkina Faso, China, Aotearoa, Little America, Aphrodite City and nearly every nation on Earth or hab on Mars. Now, they have even been joined by Balvis, an orphan Santosian without anything tying him to his home world any more. Lucy Drummond and Julu Serpen take him under their wing.As for the Venture, meeting Gagarin has caused the crew to seriously question the rules and regulations laid down in their strict military hierarchy. Is there a better way to organize society than through structures of power and discipline? And should they ever go back to the civilization they have come to realize it is not the utopia they once believed it was.Meanwhile, the bloated corpse of the greatest threat the galaxy has ever seen has cracked it's eyes open. The Blood Legion is back, but the Union Admiralty is more concerned with the arrest of Captain Kriss.Can Gagarin calm the tensions between the Union of Sovereign Planets and their most decorated captain or will the rot at the core of their society spread and endanger the whole universe?