Hundreds of years after the death of Earth, the Nations have built a thriving community of lucky refugees on multiple space stations orbiting the desolate planet's atmosphere. The Global Air Defense has finally achieved the ability for interstellar space travel, completing a space ship to travel the stars and find a new planet for the remaining human population.
To make their plan work, the GAD must trust an ally they've only ever treated as a second-class citizen: the planet-bound, those left to fight to survive on Earth.
Louise Wyndham, contact for the black market smuggling ring of Puget City, becomes the first planet-bound trainee enlisted in the GAD, rising quickly to graduate as the first planet-bound officer. But nothing can prepare her for the struggles of coming face to face with the ship-born and their generations of prejudices about the planet-bound.
When the ship Hickory finds a planet that meets all of the criteria, Louise finds herself in a new fight; more than just a fight against her surroundings, more than just a fight to prove that she's capable―no matter where she came from. . . this is a fight for survival. Will the rest of the crew set aside their prejudices? Or will they lead themselves, and humanity, into destruction?
