A bold new space opera from Aurealis Awards shortlisted author of The Firebird’s Tale and Cradle and Grave.

The AI is brutal, vicious and efficient and humanity has to fight to survive.

“Citizens of the Federation. Greetings from the Core.”

For decades the UN and the Russian military have navigated a tense interstellar Cold War.

Lieutenant Kalina Sokolova is aide to Counter-Admiral Kasparov, the major strategist for the Russian Navy. She is also an elite spy working for the UN. She is tasked with watching the Counter-Admiral, and assassination is not out of the question.

Solitaire Yeung is a corsair, a scavenger, a pirate. In the heart of a destroyed Russian battleship, his salvage crew makes an explosive discovery: the brain of the ship's top secret artificial intelligence. And against their better judgment, they take it and run.

The UN wants it, and the Russians want it back, but they're not the only ones hunting it. An even more powerful foe grows in the darkness of space. Now all of humanity has to fight to survive...