Not only have the ascended AIs disappeared, but humans have discovered an alien race as well as the remains of another ancient species…a species which may have been the original creators of jump gates. While Tanis wrestles with those implications, unrest begins to unravel the carefully constructed Alliance of Sapients she’s created, forcing her to return to Sol where the seat of her government lies. Meanwhile, Finaeus and Tangel find themselves on the outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy, a million years in the future. There they witness the devastation wrought by a million years of conflict between the ascended AIs and aliens who had long-ago fled the Milky Way. Add to that long-lost friends, a looming alien war, and a group of scavengers who jump deep into humanity’s past to alter the course of Rome’s war with Carthage and the hard-won peace following the Orion War teeters on the brink.