A ship the size of a small planet; a crew from all over the Milky Way. The crew, only three percent of which are humans, could grow to over five million in number by the time the ship reaches its destination in a distant galaxy.

At the vanguard of a new era of science and exploration, the Anillan Project names their first ship Exploration. Each ship in the eventual fleet of three hundred will explore a different galaxy. But that will only happen if Exploration accomplishes its mission, a mission some people want to destroy before it even begins.