A manned, interstellar survey ship has gone missing. A nuclear terror plot is thwarted just outside Washington, D.C. And it's an election year. While on a trip to Africa to connect with her roots, junior reporter Mandisa Nkosi is contacted by an anonymous source who presents evidence that the nuclear material seized from the terror plot will point squarely at one of humanity's largest companies as the supplier-the source also unveils that it's a setup and part of a conspiracy that could go to the highest levels of the corporate world and even the government. Jans Mikel is the CEO Applied Interstellar Corporation (AIC). The company uncovered the secret of interstellar travel decades, if not centuries, before Earth's brightest scientists thought possible. AIC not only discovered the technology, it also holds mineral rights to the lion's share of the newly uncovered element that makes it all possible: hyperium. But AIC has too much power and others want a piece-to control the amazing metal and learn AIC's secrets. More than a decade ago, AIC moved its corporate headquarters off Earth in an effort to gain some distance from its corporate and political foes. But even being located fifty-seven light years from those that would bring it down may not be enough to save it from the biggest conspiracy in human history. When Mandi gets too close to exposing the conspiracy, she becomes a target. Only intervention from Grae Raymus, AIC's top security agent, saves her from an unfitting end. Together they escape, flee Earth, and take the investigation to the stars. Will she and Grae be able to unravel a plot that not only threatens AIC, but the future of humanity as well?