Neo Darwinists who exploit the latest sciences and technologies as they seek to make the Cosmos their private goldmine, and the People of the Book who see human expansion beyond Earth as an abomination. Into the turmoil step Dr. Jennifer Colbert, scientist, and Boone Dalton, a surgically altered race driver. Boone and Jennifer have an inadvertent blood exchange following an assassination attempt that proves to be key to their surviving android ambushes and a terrible Martian pandemic. Although mismatched, Boone and Jennifer work together and become the first humans robust enough to colonize the Cosmos.