A war lost.
 A civilization in ruins.
 A spark of hope among the wreckage. The war is over. The war has just begun. Major Katherine Asher of the newly founded United Earth Alliance knows nothing about the apocalyptic war of a past future. She's scheduled to pilot the newly christened Dove, Earth's first starship, in her maiden voyage. But when a terrorist attack leaves her wounded and hearing voices, she quickly finds herself caught up in the eternal struggle and fighting to stop a future that has no place for humankind. At the same time, a man in St. Louis decides to leave the psychiatric hospital he's called home for the last twenty years, since the fateful night an alien starship fell to Earth...