Saturn’s Rings – beautiful and beguiling, a Siren’s lure as seen from the inner reaches of the Solar System, they offer a similar fate for ships that draw too near. That was the destiny of the Earth-bound Deveraux a dozen years before, flying into the ring at the beginning of its journey home, failing to emerge from the farther side, somehow vanishing completely, along with its passengers and crew.

For Guardsman Alejandro Detweiler, standing watch on the Guard ship Custis, on yet another futile search, this was all very long ago. The Guard can dispatch as many rescue missions as it chooses, but the Deveraux is gone, existing only as a legend, its story a warning to careless pilots. Watching the featureless surface of the Ring stream by, Alejandro and his crewmates discuss the hopelessness of their task, and contemplate the coming prospects of another retrieval, that of the merchant ship Anderson. “At least we know where this ship is,” says Al.

The abandonment of the Anderson is recent, only three years before. Its loss occurred at a point far distant from the disappearance of the Deveraux, but the reach of the vanished ship is long, as Al soon discovers. At first the mystery of the Anderson seems simple, a small trifle, a body missing and presumed to have drifted away. But nothing about the Anderson, or the Deveraux, will be as easy as it first appears.

Investigating further, Al learns that the Deveraux’s disappearance is more criminal than mystical, and the secret to its discovery will more likely be found in the halls of Base One than in the reaches of empty space. Setting aside his Guardsman’s uniform, and taking again the role of a police investigator, Al begins a journey that will lead from the edge of Saturn’s rings to the orbit of its most distant moon.