Marta Grayline has problems: her stable, fulfilling life as a freighter pilot has been yanked out from under her, she’s stuck on her miserable home planet with her obnoxious family, her beautiful girlfriend’s now on the opposite side of an intrastellar war, and, worst of all, she’s bored to tears. When her enigmatic sister Beth offers her a way out – enlisting in the Novan Emergency Fleet – she jumps at it.

Now Marta has questions: Why was her ship attacked and destroyed? Who are the strange people who rescued her, and what’s their connection to the mysterious alien Abrax? What’s the seven-note song looping endlessly through her head supposed to mean? And, strangest of all, why is there a door to a dead planet in the science lab of a hidden space station?

Marta’s quest for answers will take her to the frozen dark side of a faraway planet, into the tense politics of an armed rebellion, through vast subterranean caves, and into the heart of the enemy’s defenses. She’ll have to face ancient forces, her own doubts, and the inside of an alien mind if she wants to save her sister, find answers to the questions burning in her mind, and unlock her own potential. The Daughter Star, the red beacon in the night sky, could either see the genesis of a startling new future for humans and Abrax, or Marta and Beth Grayline’s annihilation…