When Kris Bjornsen and her fellow slaves were dumped on an uninhabited planet by the alien Catteni overlords, they would surely have died-without the help of Zainal, a renegade Catteni exiled by his own people. But they did survive on the planet they named Botany, and in time they drove the Catteni away from Earth and neighboring planets. Technologically limited but rich in natural resources, Botany must find its place in the newly configured universe...