Vee, Valeria Amari, wears boys’ clothes to hide the fact she’s a girl. Her and her best friend, a Mitsuthie (avian species think Big Bird, a Wookie/Groot-like character), are refugees living in the Belly on Taradhin, a luxury planet. After the Data Wars, millions were displaced when their home worlds were given to the Combine to end the war, or slagged, destroyed during the war. The displaced were sent to camps on planets needing cheap labor. Vee is short so she can pass as a boy even though she’s seventeen. Budgie, her Mitsuthie pal, is tall and strong. Vee steals a valuable artifact that will change the entire universe. It’s a map showing the way to the home world of an ancient civilization as well as a power source that when engaged, can thrust a spaceship through a wormhole.