There's a new player in the great game, and the Elders edicts hold no sway over them... Steve and the team hold the ship but only for now. Yet the world is swiftly waking to the new reality, the vultures are circling, and keeping the ship looks to be at least as hard as taking it ever was. Time is never on Steve's side, but the knowledge that he agreed to present himself before the only faction he's not at war with, and the Elders have no patience for delays, only add to his stress. He's out of time, out of tricks, and patience? That's a luxury long gone. But while Steve might be running low on many things, his reservoir of brutality is far from dry. Good thing too, because one of the god-like creators has cast her ominous gaze on him now, and as far as she's concerned, he and all his kind are vermin. What will the vermin do, when the exterminators are called?