Twenty-eight years after it's first contact with other civilizations, Earth is divided between the 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 fear armed interference by the vast empires beyond Earth. Into this turmoil, step Dr. Jennifer Colbert, biologist, and Boone Dalton, a race driver surgically altered by scientists after a suspicious accident. 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. This mismatched pair must, learn to work together as they become the first humans robust enough to colonize the Cosmos.