A whisper in the empty dark. The Authority has been driven off, but Drake and Yukiko still have a lot of problems in search of solutions. And then there is the deepening mystery of Those Who Came Before. Evidence is starting to suggest that they are not what everyone here thought. They are likely not the ones who built the alien travel network that brought them here and trapped them. A half-seen form that vanishes when you look. As Drake and Yukiko work to stymie their enemies and make a home away from home for humanity, they have to wrestle with new questions. Worse, it seems as if the long departed aliens might not be so departed as everyone believes. Do they have an agenda? If so, can they be reasoned with before they make everything much, much worse? Ghosts in the machine.