Ren has lived more than a century, witnessing the Final Transmission, the Strife Years that followed, the new world ushered in after Assimilation Protocol was initiated by Hul-net, and then the world reconfiguration of At-net. Now, she is tasked with a mission to uncover the reasons behind a mysterious emergency signal sent from an archaeological research base under the ice of Enceladus, in orbit of Saturn. She must assemble a team of specialists, including a sentient fungus, a curmudgeonly mollusc more at home deep beneath the Atlantic ocean, a reptilian rehabilitated assassin, a recovering "Psychomath," who lived only for the perfection of every new calculation, a highly intelligent corvid whose brain has been rewired with advanced neural technology, and a hive of cybernetic insects that functions as a collective unit within a mechanical enclosure. Outwitting pirates, cults, and an ideologically fanatical AI on the way, they must traverse the solar system, overcome their own minds to evolve beyond themselves, and make contact with a new form of intelligence.
