Fighter pilot Spensa Nightshade has been embroiled in an alien empire's war and now, to figure out what she really is, she must leave her world behind to enter the Nowhere, a mysterious realm from which those who enter rarely ever return.

As a Defiant Defense Force pilot, Spensa has proved herself one of the best starfighters in the human enclave of Detritus, and traveled light-years as an undercover spy to infiltrate the Superiority, where she learned of the galaxy beyond her small, desolate planet home. Now, the Superiority-- the governing galactic alliance bent on dominating all human life-- has started a galaxy-wide war. They plan to use an ancient alien force that can wipe out entire planetary systems in an instant. There is no hope... except that Spensa is Cytonic. If she is able to figure out what she is, she could save the galaxy. -- adapted from jacket