The crew of Ngarra's deep sea mining Skimmer are at Xed Ocean Academy under the watchful eye of officials and soon to return to sea. Previously, they had been pursued at sea for a technology one of the crew developed that enabled Xtract mining drones to learn autonomous group behaviour. Chang, a crew member, is convinced his sister Ying Yue is in danger. She works onboard the Chinese-owned GlobeCorpMining deep-sea mineral Harvester and is developing a technology that has the potential to undermine the Skimmer crew program. Chang becomes a pawn that is played by all sides, culminating in a face off at the Harvester. As brother and sister struggle with family history, it becomes apparent that there is more to the Skimmers than the crew is led to believe.