Space is vast. No matter how much firepower you have, you can't defeat your enemy unless you know exactly where and when to strike. That's why Lieutenant Emil is so critical to his task force. He's a type of electromagnetic warfare specialist called an emmer serving in an interstellar war. However, Emil is slowly going insane- a path already taken by two other emmers in the task force. He's seeing scenes from all over the ship, noticing things that can't be real, and starting to doubt his own humanity. What's worse, the war isn't going well, and the crew of the flagship Excalibur are dependent upon Emil to do his job better than ever before. When the alien enemy called the Vothriles ask for a secret meeting in deep space with Emil's task force, everyone is suspicious. The warship Excalibur heads out to meet with the alien foes that no Terran yet understands. The Vothriles propose joining forces against an even greater common menace, a mysterious enemy code-named "Force Cantrithor." No one knows if Force Cantrithor can be defeated, or if the Vothriles can be trusted. But it may not matter. How much longer can Emil hold it together, anyway?