The Andromeda Ascendant is the last surviving ship of the long-dead Systems Commonwealth interstellar empire. Its captain, Dylan Hunt, along with the crew of the Eureka Maru, has been trying to contact outlying planets who might rejoin the revived Commonwealth. But one such planet responds to the Andromeda's friendly advances with an all-out attack that cripples the Andromeda. Fleeing on the limited power that the ship can muster, Hunt, Beka Valentine and the rest of the crew seek a resupply depot, but none is near enough for them to reach, except for an abandoned station, uninhabited since the collapse of the empire. When Hunt, systems analyst Seamus Harper, and Andromeda's Al Rommie get into the station, they find it's not quite uninhabited. Strange presences assail them. And while they try to get what they need without being killed by whatever is lurking on the station, something is attacking the Andromeda itself. There's plenty of action and suspense before this routine resupply mission can be finished...if it can be finished.