Time is Precious.

Upon returning from the alien planet, the remaining crew of the USCS Tempest never could have anticipated this: their ship is in impeccable condition, almost like it never left spacedock. All signs of their former trials are gone.

Due to a unique distortion in the planet’s atmosphere, Cas, Evie and the rest of the crew who visited the planet missed the last eighteen years of history. But just because those who stayed aboard had time to repair the ship doesn’t mean all is good. Commander Sesster has fallen into a coma, and without him, they still can’t leave. Not to mention the fallout from Evie’s actions on the planet’s surface. Cas and Box are the only ones who witnessed the carnage, or so they think.

But their main concern is what might have happened to the Coalition in the past two decades. There’s been no comm traffic coming from Coalition space in all that time, leading Cas to fear the worst. To find out, they’ll need to find a way to travel without Sesster, at least until they can figure out what’s wrong with him. But the truth of what happened in those eighteen years may be more than any of them are ready to handle.