Sarya Vald is the galaxy's worst nightmare: a Human.Fortunately, she's the last one. Adopted and raised by the alien Senya, a terrifying sentient spider-like species known as a Widow, Sarya has lived on a space station her entire life. But the space station's central intelligence, ELLIE, a grumpy 1,500 year-old AI, outs Sarya as a restricted species and threatens to throw her out the nearest airlock. Forced to flee as the station's inhabitants begin to riot, Sarya commandeers a ship, a talkative space-suit, a cheerful pet (that happens to be a floating blob), and heads for the edge of civilization.Years later, ships have returned from the less-traveled tradeways of the universe, missing cargo and crew members but bearing tales of a band of smugglers and pirates, headed by a captain who looks a lot like the galaxy's worst nightmare... a real-live Human.