Part one of two. The Hephaestus is thrust into a maelstrom in the wake of Wolf 359's sudden, violent change. With the station infrastructure taking heavy damage and multiple systems failing, Eiffel, Minkowski, and Hera must scramble to find a way out of the storm. But as they struggle to content with the inexplicable phenomenon, the human members of the crew slowly realize that there may be another, even deadlier, force affecting them. Plus, inner logic consultants, messages in bottles, the polarity of ions, Duck Dodgers, and unprecedented deep space discoveries.