In the 23rd century, Earth's elite live in untouched luxury while the Outer Colonies toil under corporate rule and manufactured poverty. When a relief fleet arrives at the agricultural world of Carver, its true mission is anything but humanitarian. Carver rep Kaycee Adams fights to unite her fractured people. Captain Mari Somi must choose between the orders she swore to follow and the lives she's sworn to protect. Jeska Aviss, a special-operations soldier betrayed by those she trusted, struggles to break free from the conditioning that made her a weapon. And the Seekers-warrior-mystics bound by code-must decide if neutrality is worth the cost of millions of lives. Amid covert wars, political assassinations, and the tightening grip of Earth's power brokers, the battle for Carver will determine not only the fate of the Outer Colonies-but the future of humanity itself.