Part one of a two-part introductory story to the F.S.S. Excalibur and her crew. Set in the chakat universe about twenty years after the majority of the existing stories, the former first officer of a ship lost to pirates has become the captain of a newly commissioned long-range cruiser. But before they head out into the unknown, they are sent on an anti-piracy patrol, where she has a run-in with her past...