How far would you go to answer your oldest question? Captain Lana Velasquez and her crew thought that after navigating first contact and an alien war waged in their name, they would finally be able to settle into their new lives among their jhenok allies. But in their centuries-long absence, the human worlds they left behind have changed, and one catches up with them. Their early retirement comes to a swift end, but not without good reason: the same mysterious Benefactors that once gifted the jhenok their wondrous technology have now done the same for a human colony. Now, grudgingly drawn back into lives they thought abandoned, Lana's crew and the jhenok find themselves on a long path between new and very different worlds. The universe doesn't give up its secrets so easily, however, and the combined crew find themselves contending with the ever-present taint of politics, betrayal, and corporate greed as they forge a path through the stars and towards long-sought answers.