THERE'S A STRANGER in the one-city desert world of Renascido. Absurdly rich, yet hidden amongst the city's teeming billions, he's planning something big. Jin Liú, a tech whizz on the run from his ruthless employers, doesn't know what that something is. Only that the offer he's made because of it is one he can't refuse. There's just one problem: the offer comes at a cost, and if Liú had known what that would be, he might have chosen death instead. Joint State Security Service officer Aral Nikumi is given a dream undercover assignment: captain of one of the most powerful warships of the Interplanetary Economic Confederation. His orders, however, are puzzling and contradictory. What should have been a routine mission deep in the territory of the loathed Lancers leads to a discovery destined to change not just his own life, but everything his society thinks it knows about itself. For there's a dark secret festering at the core of Renascido and the Interplanetary Economic Confederation. A secret which may threaten the existence of humanity itself.

Meanwhile, far away, a young whistle-blower finds himself trapped in a lethal solar system. Enslaved under the most dangerous conditions imaginable, he finds an unexpected ally in his fight for survival. Only one being in the universe is aware that these seemingly disparate players are set on a collision course that will shape the future of everything.