In one hundred and seventy-one years, Earth is as desolate as the Moon. The technologies we are developing today in AI, robotics, and space travel have enabled mankind to populate the stars.

The cellphone, computer and internet now reside on a tiny chip implanted in the brain. Genetic research has produced a new race of beautiful people. But with all technological leaps forward, there is a step back. Vanity and arrogance run rampant. Integrity exists only in musty books.

Except on the edge of explored space. On the planet Utopia lies a tiny colony founded by the Anti-Technology League. Our hero, young Pax Hawkins, is unchipped, making him among the few unspoiled humans in the universe.

While out hunting with bow and arrow, Pax spots a commodous bird carrying a space shuttle as easily as a cat with a mouse in its jaws. Urged on by a sense of duty, Pax follows the avian behemoth into the mountains to its nest hoping to rescue survivors.

At the wreckage site, Pax finds a synthetic named Mila Curry with a broken leg. She informs him the chip in the head of one of the deceased passengers contains a discovery that will shift the balance of power within the Inner Systems.

Together, on a small starship, the SMS Hunter’s Moon, with a crew of genetically enhanced humans as well as pirates, they set out on a journey that will lead them through a black hole into uncharted systems on an epic adventure that will force Pax’s to use technology to survive, but at a cost to his integrity.