The first interstellar starship, John Glenn, fled a
Solar System populated by rogue AIs and machine/human
hybrids, threatened by too much nanotechnology and rife with
political dangers. The John Glenn’s crew intended to
terraform the nearly pristine planet Ymir, in hopes of
creating a utopian society that will limit intelligent
technology.
But by some miscalculation they have landed in another solar
system, and extremely low on the antimatter needed to
continue to Ymir, they must shape the nearby planet
Harlequin’s moon, Selene, into a new, temporary home. Their
only hope of ever reaching Ymir is to rebuild their store of
antimatter through decades of terraforming the moon.
Gabriel, the head terraformer, must lead this nearly
impossible task, with all the wrong materials. His primary
tools are the uneducated and nearly illiterate children of
the original colonists, born and bred to build Harlequin’s
moon into a virtual antimatter factory. With no concept of
the future and with life defined as duty, one girl, Rachel
Vanowen, begins to ask herself the question: what will
become of the children of Selene once the terraforming is
complete.