After New California's founder committed suicide, two men vied to rule the colony.

• Ashwin George, supported by the colony's elite and Tián Quán, the Chinese company whose hyperdrive ships and intelligent robots dominated half the settled galaxy.

• Desmond Park, nanotechnology engineer, armed with a shrewd intellect, the loyalty of the colony's disaffected youth, and the most formidable weapon of all.

  A single idea.