Generations after the old republic dies by its own hand, the successor states are still at war. General Fettwap Aliende and the high-tech Unity DUFS invade the outlands west of the AppIach. Agrarian, less populous, and decidedly unfashionable, the invasion should be a walkover. Yet, on the fourth day out, the Unis awake to brutal cold and discover that their brain-ablated troopers have slipped their mental leash. The rank-and-file, oblivious to orders, kill their officers and each other until only the submissives remain. And then the Americans attack, scooping up what remains. Aliende bullies his considerable bulk onto the only skimmer leaving the frozen outlands. On the spur of the moment, Aliende dragoons Captain Blanche Woods to cover his back. All other passengers are executed to cover his cowardice. Outrunning the news of his own defeat, Aliende returns to Nyork and seizes, with Woods' help, the reins of power, aspiring to become Solon, supreme and protected. Blanche Woods, a TranTran, coerced into sex reassignment as a child but regretting it ever since, hopes her new status, based on her talents rather than her "Protected Class," will give her a chance for real advancement. However, Aliende's paranoia assigns her to the unenviable task of rooting out all American spies - and she falls down the rabbit hole prepared for her. The CORE, the master computer of the Unity, has ghosts who create rabbit holes. The CORE entities realize that a decaying Unity, whether by neglect or conquest, means the CORE dies-taking its ghosts with it. Feeling like "babes underfoot in a bar brawl," they plot to alter reality.
