The year is 2053 and a huge meteor, in the form of a rogue planet called Lycos, has partially destroyed the Earth. Some years prior to Lycos, a faulty deep space satellite accidentally captured data showing that Europa could possibly sustain human life. With the impending impact of Lycos, a decision was made to start construction of two moon bases and two Generation Space Ships; the Orion and the Cassiopeia. Now that the two ships are ready, the remaining survivors on the moon prepare to make the journey to Europa.

The plot centers around Tess Robinson, her husband Stan and son Lenny and a number of close allies of Tess. Tess's emotional state has been driven by the loss of her husband and son (unbeknownst to Tess, however, Stan and Lenny are still alive in an underground parking garage/bomb shelter on Earth). Tess is a strong-willed black female pilot who has been charged with flying the Cassiopeia generation space ship to Europa. The moon base commander, Wilfred Soren, is power hungry and wants to set himself up as a king on Europa, so he manipulates his allies and enemies in order to secretly board the Cassiopeia with his select people and fly it to Europa ahead of schedule. Many, including Tess, are abandoned on the moon with little fuel, food, and power. Their only chance to survive is to retrieve the Orion at the destroyed UN base and return to Earth. There, they hoped to get enough fuel for the trip to Europa, as well as a key engine part called the engine power node.

They make the trip to Earth and during the refueling operation, Tess and her group are attacked and taken to Harlan Penitentiary, an underground prison located in North San Antonio, Texas. Henry's group, directed to find the underground shelter, is saved from a pack of vicious dogs by Tess's son, Lenny.

At the prison, Tess witnesses the violent death of one of her team members and learns that he will be eaten. She is taken down into the prison sublevels, where she devises a way to escape from one of the underground prison wings through an underwater river system. At the same time, she identifies an engine power node stored in the cannibal's storage cell. She is reunited with Stan, but while he and the others are escaping under the water, she is recaptured.

After communicating with the Orion, Henry finds out that Tess and her group may have been attacked and kidnapped by the same group that attacked the underground shelter folks. They head back to the Orion to devise a plan for rescuing Tess and the others.

Henry and his rescue team arrive at the prison in time to find Tess on the verge of being burned alive. They are able to save Tess and run off most of the cannibals, but the prison's high guard, Brutos, now has the engine power node in his possession. After a brutal fight, Brutos is killed and the engine power node is retrieved. With the engine power node in place, Tess heads towards Europa.

Several months later, they encounter the drifting Cassiopeia. Tess explains that there are supplies and good people on that ship and wants to get them out. Consequently, Stan and Chayton (Tess's co-pilot) perform a space walk to connect to the supply cabin. While Chayton directs the docking procedure, Stan enters the cargo section of the ship and finds that the people have barricaded themselves in the cargo section to isolate themselves from Soren's suicidal people. They are successfully transferred to the Orion, but Chayton announces that he will have to blow the cabin releases from inside.

Chayton enters the ship from the passenger portal and is attacked by Rey. Stan goes after him and kills him. He makes his way to the cockpit and blows the releases. He encounters a badly mutilated and helpless Soren, whom he leaves to his fate. He finds a wounded Chayton and they miraculously make it to the ship.

They land on Europa in a lush field of grass and trees, near a huge body of water. A pregnant Tess hugs Stan beneath the huge Jupiter-dominated sky.

Author Info - Dennis Calloway is a native of Detroit, Michigan with deep roots in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He is married to Marcia Jones (MJ) Calloway and has two daughters, Mariel and Nia. He and Marcia currently live in Houston, Texas.Dennis enlisted in the US Army in 1980 as a Combat Medic and Cardiac Specialist, serving in Washington DC at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He was accepted at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey in 1981. After his time at the Prep School, he applied to the United States Military Academy at West Point and entered in July of 1982. He graduated from West Point in 1986 ("Courage Never Quits!") with a BS in Engineering and a double language minor in Russian and German. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Field Artillery and served in Panama and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, before resigning his commission as a Captain in 1991. Dennis went on to work for several prominent companies in Oklahoma and Texas to include General Mills, Sabre, and GE. He currently works in oil & gas software sales and spends his free time practicing karate, swimming, and of course, writing.