Her grandparents were heroes to three intelligent species. Her parents are celebrated scholars. Bangaluru Agnivesh Kirthi is teetering on the edge. Seventy-three years ago Cuchulain "Murphy" O'Meath of the Emperor's Jin Jun and Fleet fighter pilot B. P. Avinashini, Fleet helped prevent the genocide of the zhizhu, and began the long process of rebuilding the genocide-decimated Horns of Tau Ceti. Fifty-three years ago, they located the last vestiges of the Manifest Destiny movement and ended its two decades of multi-species terrorism. B. A. Kirthi, their granddaughter, tries to eke out a living in the obsolete, salvaged Rani Lakshmi Bai. Her dishonorable discharge from Fleet and the death she caused haunt her. Fleet Admiral Idanha keeps her from finding a future. Her grandmother, rigid and distant, is no help, and a friend of the zhizhu to boot. The unraveling threads lead Kirthi to the unstable flare star Zhu Rong, where she must reconcile past, present and future.