The Cygnus War is over. Across most of known space, life is returning to normal. For Tessa Ellen Eisenherz, however, life is still far from normal. Stripped of rank and officially papered by the Department of Licensing for Genetic Constructs, Tessa’s life has been reduced to a series of questionable gigs just so she can stay alive and keep flying. An insidious, mechanical cancer is slowly eating her body from within, but when a forgotten lover from her past suddenly reappears in her life, she finds a new reason to fight to stay alive. And fight she will, because for her, the real war is far from over.