The ever resourceful Captain Mackenzie Calhoun abruptly discovers himself at a loss-marooned on he primitive outback world of Yakaba after his ship, Excalibur, is destroyed by deadly sabotage. He’s separated from his devoted first officer, Shelby, who has gone one to command the Exeter and is certain that Calhoun has been blasted into oblivion. On Yakaba’s dried out frontier, Calhoun meets and befriends Shula, an extraordinary female beset by foes trying to regulate or destroy her and her gift-summoning rainfall to her parched homeland.

Trapped on this hostile world, unable to relay to his people that he survived their ship’s cataclysm, Calhoun must stand against countless adversaries who will stop at nothing to get power or keep it from others. Lifestyle and death hang in the balance. Out in the length, mourning but decided to go on, Shelby must uncover what sort of captain she really is.