A New Ship A New Crew A Different Kind of Mission When Manchester Yards donates a new training vessel to the Merchant Officer Academy at Port Newmar, Alys Giggone recalls the Chernyakova. She wants Ishmael Wang and his crew to take a crew of cadets into the Deep Dark. They have to sort out the crews of two ships, figure out what lessons they need to teach, and who will get those lessons. Once they agree, the trouble starts

A Brand New Ship A Brand New Crew What could possibly go wrong? When Ishmael takes a crew of academy cadets into the Toe Holds, he's unprepared for the level of trouble green hands can get into. Meanwhile their academy liaison discovers what can go wrong when you learn the wrong lessons and try to teach the wrong students. Will they all make it back to the academy before somebody accidentally takes a short walk out the air lock without a suit?

It pays to take a second look. In the Deep Dark, it's a long walk home. The Marva Collins runs into unexpected problems a long way from port. Faced with some hard decisions, and uncertain about the choices, Ishmael has to roll the dice with inadequate information. Is he sailing too close to the edge of forever?