Evil men conspired to have a starship destroyed to hide the evil they had done. They intended for its crew to disappear forever. In all of that chaos at the end of the war, the Anoza somehow found me. They chose me to save the Tesseract. I didn’t know any of that when I bought a ship that was never meant for sale. I didn’t know any of that when I first stepped foot upon its decks and changed everything...but I know it now. And save the Tesseract? Damned straight, I will.

I am John Korbin, outworlder to the nines. By the end of the war, I had lost everything. I went to the Union Fleet space docks to buy a war surplus scout-class ship, to start my whole life over. The Tesseract was nothing I expected but everything I needed. And you know that crew they thought was lost and gone forever? Well, think again. Now the crew and I go wherever we are needed. Making a difference starts with us.

Just because I am paranoid does not mean that people are not out to get me. Sarsen Tabbot sent her most fearsome killer ship, a Dark Star, to kill me and destroy my ships. That only makes my point. Mankind was cast into the outer darkness because of the evil in our hearts. So, as you can see, I have my work cut out for me.

Through all of this, I was inexorably drawn into the Codex, hidden deep within the Tesseract. The Codex is Anoza quantum technology a million years more advanced than human, but where is it taking me? And why me?