Death begins at home... The Milky Way. Sixty thousand light years across. A hundred billion planets to explore. Most of them out of reach, even of the Mannix-Alcubierre Warp Drive. In 2235, Earth's few well-worn neighbors brim with colonists and terraformers. Humanity now faces the final limits of its growth. When Chan Xiyi Aya's dream of life beyond the rim lands her in hot water with the Foundation who employs her, she gets her shot at the job she's aching for: chronicling the history of a planet she'd kill to protect, three hundred light years beyond the rim of human space. The catch? Only the dead can go.