Unaware that the invasion of their quadrant of the Milky Way by meat eating reptilian invaders had already begun, the Union Space Command orders the Battle Cruiser Empyrean to investigate a sudden loss of communications from the planet Vendon. No one in Space Command or within the hundreds of Union member worlds could ever suspect that the hero of Vendon, and savior of the Union, would be a senior in high school from a backwater non-member planet called Earth. Dylan Summers, out to capture a cover photograph for his high school yearbook, finds a mysterious smudge on one of his photographs that leads him discover an interstellar travel concourse hidden deep in a canyon. His first adventure into the concourse gets him invited to dinner, as the main course, with the Rygon Empire, is given the Union's most prized possession for his bravery, and is banned from interstellar travel until after college. At the end of his senior year of college the Rygon Empire once again invades the quadrant, and starts that invasion with a pre-emptive strike on Earth's travel concourse. Dylan discovers he's been blessed with special abilities that are not quite human, has a new girl friend who just might be an android, and finds himself in command of a ancient and derelict space craft with a few surprises all of its own.