If a starship crashes in the forest and there is no one around to hear, does it make a sound? This story begins following the young human who survives the crash, as he becomes an emergency surgeon, a house builder, and finally, a reluctant killer. He had come on this voyage to find his father, but will he succeed? Does his father still live? He finds guidance in an older man who appears with his wife of many years, but from whence did they come and what is their story? There is something quite odd about them. What is in that strange case he carries? Will it bring Abras and the remaining Drolla fleet to the brink of a new galactic war which could even endanger those living on Earth?