Lysander awakens from a recurring beach nightmare aboard the aging corvette Archimedes, reflecting on his lineage, Cassius’s protection, and their decade wandering the fringes to help the vulnerable. With pilot Pytha, they divert from repairs to investigate the dark, drifting cargo hauler Vindabona in the Gulf between Republic and Rim space.

To avoid a trap, Cassius and Lysander spacewalk from an asteroid, breach a service airlock, and find the hauler eerily empty. A trail of blood leads to a slaughter at the escape bay and, deeper, to a room where bodies are piled over bound survivors. After freeing them, an unnamed Red explains that Obsidian raiders boarded from the cargo bay and that a non-Scarred Gold passenger paid to be dropped at asteroid S-1392.

Pytha warns that three Ascomanni warships are inbound. Cassius orders an evacuation via transfer tube and prioritizes the survivors. Lysander argues for rescuing the rumored Gold passenger; Cassius refuses as too risky. As Cassius leads the survivors toward extraction, Lysander disobeys, turning back alone to reconnoiter.

Guided by the Mind’s Eye, Lysander avoids three drunken Obsidians in the commissary and searches further. Time running short, he finds another room full of caged lowColors and, suspended above them in a wire net, a naked Gold woman—alive, the raiders’ “Sunborn” prize—just as the enemy closes in.