By the year 3300, humanity had managed to master a small region of the Galaxy and spread across several thousand star systems. Approximately 200 years before the events described, the first galactic war with an alien insectoid race calling itself the Targoids ended. The main character is a young graduate of the Space Academy who received no assignment either to the military fleet or to any corporation. Left to his own devices, he doesn’t despair and tries to survive in a huge and unfriendly world. He learns to pilot a ship, trades, engages in contraband, and makes friends — not always loyal to the law. His adventures give him the key to a new secret: an ancient wrecked ship that ended its journey on a distant planet.