Is this a dream... or a nightmare?
The crew of the interstellar colony vessel Arachne is roused from artificial hibernation to face a horrific reality, as an alien boarding party takes them into custody to answer for the deaths of tens of thousands of sentient beings.
But there is more to their trial than meets the eye, and the threads of intrigue weave a tight web as crewmates and friends are divided between those who feel they owe restitution for the actions of the ship''s AI in their defense, and those who refuse to bow down to a judgment they see as persecution.
What future can they hope to build among aliens who see them as mass murderers... presuming they have a future at all?