After a disaster with her first mining team, Cavalier, Vex is convinced that it is best for everyone that she not get close to anyone. This means no friends, no family, no lovers. She has contact only with her teammates in Spartan. That conviction does not mean that she can't go out and buy an artificial life robot, called a Jack, which she names Red. But something is not quite right with her Jack; he has rules for her to follow and upholds them with spankings. Red's ways are pushing her closer to her teammates, and Vex is being forced to look at the future of her life through new eyes.