Deuce struggles for respect in a new topside town where she is treated like a child and avoided by Fade, a situation that compels her to volunteer for patrol duty and protect topside citizens from an unexpected upsurge in Freak activity.
Salvation is surrounded, monsters are at the gates, and this time, they're not going away. When Deuce, Fade, Stalker and Tegan set out, the odds are against them.
Tegan signs on as a ship's doctor, hoping for an epic adventure, but soon finds romance with Szarok, the Uroch vanguard, in a relationship that is both alien and forbidden.