With the First Ones chasing them relentlessly across the galaxy, the fleet of SSC ships carrying the remnants of the colonists and prisoners from the Sword Belt Nebula, accompanied by Captain Atlas Carter in the alien ship known as the Bwainhome, are all living on borrowed time. The discovery of a massive gravitational anomaly that the First Ones have so far been unable to enter has bought them some time, but that respite won't last forever. As such, Carter has come up with a plan that could potentially save them all, if he can just pull it off in time. Unfortunately, that plan involves him leaving the fleet behind so that he can travel back home to retrieve an experimental gravitational drive that's capable of both harming the First Ones, and creating a barrier around the fleet that the first ones can't penetrate. Back on Earth, he's been elevated to the greatest threat that mankind's ever seen, all thanks to the web of lies that Phuri and Admiral Nico have been fabricating about him in an attempt to foment a coup against the sitting president. As a show of his own power, and a demonstration of the president's weakness, Nico has assembled a massive fleet of SSC ships and tasked them with destroying both Carter and the Bwain at all costs. Time is of the essence, and Nico's treachery may end up costing even more lives if Carter can't complete his mission and return to the others in time.