Space is a mess

In 2066 Earth's orbit is a revolving landfill of rocket boosters, twisted wreckage, and satellite corpses. The small crew aboard a space station dedicated to "exo-atmospheric remediation and reclamation" are tasked with cleaning up the mess. The job is far from glamorous.

Four lonely workers

On a morning like any other, the crew are repairing damage to the station caused by a coronal mass ejection. The workers include a former soldier who gets things done fast and done right, a lackadaisical gamer who'd rather listen to music, and a space-weary captain who has spent most of his life away from Earth.

A new guy

At this lonely outpost lands a mysterious pilot. Only the captain knows anything about him, and he isn't talking either. But this new guy quickly proves his mettle during an emergency job, nabbing a satellite that was spinning madly out of control, a casualty of the solar tantrum.

An ambush

Before they can celebrate their success, however, the crew are ambushed in a rocket attack that batters the station. Forced to defend themselves with little more than their creativity, they are overwhelmed and taken hostage. The triumphant invaders are led by a flamboyant criminal who assures them, “I am not a terrorist, I am a cost of doing business.”

A brazen theft

Only one thing could have launched that missile their way. A year earlier, the master thief and his cohorts stole a sleek spacecraft from its launch facility. After destroying a lunar station while refueling at the Moon, the hijackers sneaked back to Earth only to be forced into an emergency landing in the mountains of Central Asia.

A dangerous plan

To secure the repairs needed to relaunch their ship, the stranded pirates forged an alliance with rebels hiding in the mountains. Believing that the spaceship fell to them for a reason, the revolutionaries scheme to take control of it and destroy an orbiting military platform as payback for Western meddling in their country's affairs. Unawares to them, a surreptitious agenda is afoot.

A global threat

Intent on extorting prodigious sums from spacefaring companies, the criminal ringleader turns the station into an explosive juggernaut that threatens global commerce. The price for noncompliance with his demands is a gigantic cloud of space junk that could set off a cataclysmic chain reaction of orbital destruction, an ablation cascade.

Three sides battle

Once the hostages free themselves, three sides converge to claim the shuttle that ferried the invaders from the stolen spacecraft to the crippled station. Whoever makes it to the transport wins the right to live. The competition is fierce and deadly, with everyone scrambling before the bombs go off.

Things get weird

Complicating matters, someone aboard the station transforms into something less — or perhaps more — than human. The creature carries the memories of a former life and dreams for a future where human beings no longer matter.

Stories within stories

As the characters struggle to survive, their personal stories come to light — tales of drug trafficking, bridal abduction, sexual blackmail, gunrunning, spook recruiting, slacker posturing, and crisis-based decisions that ended in catastrophe.