Arachne's Exile — Christopher L. Bennett

What a Tangled Web...

When the colony starship Arachne unwittingly destroyed a deep-space habitat of the Chirrn, her crew committed themselves to a lifetime of penance to repay their debt. But a brutal act of vengeance has now forced them into exile in a distant part of the galaxy.

Drawn into a cosmic conspiracy spanning millennia, the colonists learn that the Chirrn's ancient choices have exacted a terrible toll on human history.

Now, their only way to win true freedom may be to carry out a perilous theft aboard an extraordinary megastructure orbiting a neutron star. 

Will Arachne and her crew pull off the heist of the millennium? Or are they being manipulated into committing a far more awful crime... one for which all humanity could pay the price?