Drifting in space, sabotaged by a crewman tainted with an alien mutagen, the starship Trumpet broadcasts to any ship in range the formula of the mutagen’s antidote—a drug the United Mining Companies has suppressed for its own sinister purposes. Aboard the crippled ship, the fugitives and survivors—Morn Hyland, an ex-UMCP cop, Angus Thermopyle, a newly freed cyborg, and unwilling saboteur Ciro Vasaczk—must make a desperate gamble. Pursued by the UMCP ship Punisher, threatened by the return of an Amnion combat vessel, they will hijack the police craft by any means necessary—and take it back to Earth.