Captain Edward Lewis commanded Cygnus Nine, a Bentonian scout fleet serving within the Paladonian military. The assignment ahead of him would define his command, though none of his crews yet understood how completely.
The fleet consisted of three destroyers and a single cruiser. Most of the vessels were hundreds of years old and regarded by much of the Paladonian military as obsolete—useful for patrol duty, border sweeps, and little else. At present, the four ships were moving toward a distant...