For Myles’s first mission as an agent of Earth he visits a First-diaspora colony. Stuck in a constricting economic system and lacking the freedoms even the most pathetic Legong enjoyed, the decadent, languishing society welcomes him as a God, but soon both he and his hosts discover each are not what they appear to be. Myles has his first taste of human flesh, falls in love, again, and becomes that which he hates the most as he tries to bring civility to this back-sliding colony.