On their wedding anniversary, Corinne—chief shield officer of the starship Starlight—was publicly betrayed by her husband Malakar. To enter the Central Fleet, he gave the secondary access he'd promised her to Ophelia, daughter of the military's deputy commander, and chose to complete a permanent gene symbiosis with her.
Corinne discovered Ophelia's test report: a fatal Eclipse gene disease. She warned Malakar repeatedly, but he dismissed it as jealousy and revenge. He destroyed the report—and with it, the Federation's only vial of the life-saving Origin Gene Serum.
Heartbroken, Corinne dissolved the marriage, reclaimed her advanced shield module, and joined the Central Fleet's strongest ship, the Corona. There, her long-ignored talent flourished under the respect and trust of Captain Embert.
Only when the shield collapsed, the disease erupted, and the conspiracy surfaced did Malakar realize: he hadn't thrown away a dependent wife—he had thrown away the true strength that had once held him, and the entire Starlight, together.
