Hidden in the dark matter halo of the Milky Way are the headquarters of Service, an intergalactic agency that provides extraterrestrials with human labor. Agent Phoenix has long since resigned himself to the daily horrors he experiences as one such human... Until one day he is assigned as partner to Agent Lemel, an ambitious woman who he can't help being drawn to. But she has plans of her own - and, somehow, he is at the center of them.