It is now the year 2928 (Monday, January 12th to be
exact) and the CSC/SEA starship Chivalric is to serve as a test vessel for a new faster-than light drive system courtesy of
Womankind's closest ally---the Zay-Lah Monarchy.
And with that in mind a team of Zay-Lah engineers
have teporarily joined the Chivalric's crew in order to help with any technical problems that might arise, helping aboard
ship until Womankind was totally conversant with the new technology.
Yet before leaving the Commonwealth on their test
run of this new technology word arrives that the scientific research vessel... Butterfly Dawn... has become the first
of Womankind's deep space starships to vanish during an otherwise routine research mission.
And with the region of space they vanished in being
also the site of conflict between two alien species (the Culdellians and Erdinnites) the Commonwealth gives the Chivalric
the duty of discovering the Butterfly Dawn's true fate. Worried that either alien race might consider it an act of war
were Womankind to send there a military vessel, they chose instead to send out another deep space exploration, scientific
research starship---the Chivalric itself (Captain Vicki D. Birgit commanding)..