Smoke Ring

Stolen star-technology (a Cargo and Rescue Module or CARM), plus the armored silver suit brought from Quinn Tree, give the Citizen Tree a way to stay in touch with the starship 'Discipline,' if they choose to do so. But when the Citizen Tree tribe rescues a family from a burning tree, they unwittingly expose their existence to the State-like Cluster, a growth-structure in the Smoke Ring where matter collects at one of the star's Lagrange Points.