On an overpopulated and climate-degraded Earth, biologist Maggie Harris designs the life support system for ships searching for other habitable planets-then joins the mission aboard the Arcturus Seeker. Assigned to a long-shot star system, Maggie and her shipmates are successful beyond all expectation, then mortally imperiled by an accident to the ship. Can they and their descendants survive on a planet devoid of life besides themselves and the environmental system Maggie designed? And did Earth's authoritarian government sabotage their mission to rid itself of unwanted dissidents?