This story is about forms of isolation. It starts with members of a machine race being used as a weapon to benefit a parasitic humanoid race. Then, an isolated archeologist living within a million-year-old civilization, will be helped by a young woman from an interstellar trading house. She will bring new life to everyone she touches. Also, the realities of living and working in space will be tested as several warring planets, and the captains of their warships, create an uneasy alliance that involves yet another race of living machines. For all, the struggle is real.