In the vast, artificial galaxy called The Spin, a rebellion has been crushed.Viklun Haas, industrialist and leader of the victorious Hegemony, is eliminating all remnants of the opposition. Starting with his daughter.But Fleare Haas has had time to plan her next move: a break for freedom that will take her across The Spin to the cluster of fallen planets known as the Catastrophe Curve from exile to the very frontiers of a new war.Because word has reached the brutal, despotic empire of The Fortunate of a most unusual piece of plunder from its latest invasion.For hundreds of millions of years, the planets and stars of The Spin have been the only testament to the god-like engineers that created them. Now, beneath the surface of a ruined planet, one of their machines has been found . . .