Though exactly when or how his father died is never discovered, Hayden continually says that he was murdered by Slipstream, a rival nation migrating through Virga.

At the opening of the story, Aerie's sun is nearly finished, and the construction team was planning a test to assure of its functionality.

Aerie's resistance starts to defend themselves from the assault, but don't appear to be a true match against the highly trained Slipstreamers.

During the fighting, Hayden is thrown off the town's spinning wheel and, as the first chapter leaves him, floating weightlessly in the darkness, where pirates call home and no suns or true governments have been established.

Venera reminisces on another times, years ago, when she was walking down this hall and a bullet ripped through her jaw line, and she was left bleeding on the floor with no one around.

Bleeding and exhausted, the informant shows Venera pictures of a secret dock and ship building facility of a rival nation, Falcon Formation, in a sargasso, which is an area where there is a build up of toxic gases that no one can enter without a specially designed sargasso suit.

As they walk out of the crowded office, the page accidentally bumps into Venera, knocking the pictures out of her hands.

Instead of moving there directly, Fanning decides to make a detour in order to recover the fabled treasure of Antene, the map to which is hidden in the Winding Tree of Fate artifact which, in turn, is stored in a station on Virga's skin.

Both Venera Fanning and Mahallan are taken prisoner by the pirate captain Dentius but regain control of the ship later.

He intends to temporarily shut off these systems in order to use radar while fighting Falcon Formation's ships.

Mahallan disables Candesce's countermeasures, enabling Fanning to hit Falcon Formation hard.