She's brave, crazy, dangerous... and your best shot at crossing the galaxy alive. An encounter with an android and an orphan has left Shaen unsettled. She's the best coyote pilot in the galaxy, but the future for all coyote pilots is madness and death, or worse, a permanent return to the hellish Asylum Ships. Unwilling to let the Belle Starr become space debris if she's incapacitated, Shaen agrees to something she's never attempted: taking on an apprentice. But old rivals Vahnu and Vishku have a different plan to make their fortune and avoid their fate. A plan that includes stealing the very thing she's struggling to save: Shaen's fractured mind.