Five hundred years into the future, Pevely Keiser is the capo of the criminal organization called Temmen. Temmen runs itself, for the most part, with only a few nudges from Pevely to keep people in line. Lately she has two things on her mind. She wants to do something good and useful with the funds that accrue to the gang. And she wants a companion or two to help her...and perhaps to share her bed, for she well knows it's lonely at the top. Pevely learns of an assassination plot against her because she opposes human trafficking. But details are sketchy. In searching for the conspirators, she and her companions come across a scheme to abduct hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people for forced labor in various mines on the obscure world of Kharsang. The operation there is run by a relative of a man Pevely killed the year before, and who wants her dead. Fighting human trafficking. Avoiding assassination. Pevely's life is just one thing after another...