Hundreds of light years from earth a devastating war has just ended between the highly advanced Gaderian civilization and a mysterious alien race known as the Minari. A Minari probe-weapon carrying vital genetic material escapes destruction and crash-lands on a remote asteroid. The probe is never salvaged and both races vanish from the galaxy. Centuries pass. It is the year 2325 and the human race now occupies this sector of space. Human scientists study the remains of the Gaderian and Minari civilizations. Ben Gardener is booked on the Star of India a state-of-the-art freighter/salvage vessel. Accompanying him is a highly unusual beingan ancient Gaderian Artificial Intelligence named Jack who masquerades as a contemporary personal computing device. Ben illegally activated Jack and no one but Ben knows of his existence. Jack in his struggle to adapt to human culture and stay incognito inadvertently helps embellish Ben's notorious reputation as a troublemaker. The crew of the Star of India discovers the lost Minari probe-weapon and a crewmember bent on stealing valuable artifacts manages to become infected by the payload. He subsequently metamorphoses into a bizarre half-human creature controlled by a one-thousand year old entity. This half-alien secretly begins to infect and subjugate the crew while surreptitiously piloting a course toward a populous planet. Ben and Jack barely uncover the plot in time and race to escape the contagion. If the ship reaches the planet the alien infection will rage out of control and the reconstituted Minari will burst upon an unsuspecting galaxy...
