After decades of worldwide prosperity and growth the Earth's populace has swollen past the brink of overpopulation. With unchecked industrialization and global resources nearing depletion, nature's delicate balance is tipping toward a dark future. The starships Eagle and Starseeker are part of a slowly growing interstellar fleet tasked with searching nearby star systems. Chartered by the United Earth government, their goal is to find a suitable life-supporting planet for a burgeoning humanity to colonize. Crewed by daring civilian explorers and planetary scientists the expeditionary ships have crossed hundreds of light years of space, yet have failed to discover such a planet. Bold political maneuvering has already put the future of their fleet in jeopardy, and uncharted space is fraught with dangers of its own, but when the crew of the Eagle discover a saboteur in their midst their mission takes on a far darker edge.