The League has new technology and team fourteen has a new ship that is much faster than the old one, vastly increasing the extent of space that can be explored. Very high speed robotic probes have been sent to search for signs of intelligent life. Amanda and TJ cancel their honeymoon plans when one of these probes returns to report that it has located at least two intelligent species that have achieved interstellar travel and they are at war.

The explorers learn there are five different species involved. One species has enslaved another and is using a third as food stock. Their opponents are an oppressive society run by an elite Central Authority that keeps most of its people in poverty.

The war, unpopular with the masses, has been raging for over 100 years and has taken on a life of its own. It if fought primarily by slaves on one side and robots on the other with those in power on both sides of the conflict benefitting financially.

They also discover that the war has not gone without notice by the Beltarians, and the Emperor has already decided to use his own means of bringing it to an end by exterminating all five species.

Amanda, TJ and the rest of the team find themselves in a race against time as they try to establish relations with these newly found cousins, bring an end to this awful war, and prevent the Beltarians from using their weapons to end billions of innocent lives.