After a near miss incident with a singularity, the admiral of the Hyperion Group arkship convoy decides to leave a vessel behind to set up an early warning system for other arkship convoys. The catch, it requires a human team to build and any volunteers would be left behind. Making the ultimate sacrifice, a ship with a small team stays behind to build the system. Over the decades the early warning system expands, but resentment and regret grow among the team as the system doesn’t encounter other convoys.