A darkness is spreading across the stars - and not just any darkness. This is a hyper-advanced, cancerous darkness named Corthaur, who was originally thought to be a pretty okay guy. He is not an okay guy. As the governing mind of humanity's first interstellar military starship, Henry just wants to help. But so much stands in his way. There's his AI-hating captain, for starters, who has severely limited the functions Henry can access. There's Corthaur, obviously, threatening to annihilate all life because he's just that bitter. And then there's the fact that a single star system stands in the way of Earth and total destruction. A system that's about to fall under brutal attack. The same system, as it happens, that Henry and his crew are about to show up in.