Beck Egan, a veteran Rigger in the colony at Lagrange 5, narrowly escapes death in an accident that looks suspiciously like sabotage. But sabotage by who? On one side an Earth government increasingly ruled by right-wing fanatics claims the Riggers employ animal implants to create a Godless "super-race." Now Earth threatens to come up and remove the implants by force. Opposing them, a younger generation of Riggers harbors secret plans to venture into "The Big Empty" aboard the new super-cylinder Stephen Hawking. Even though the habitat remains incomplete and the technology necessary to survive so far amounts to no more than wishful thinking. Caught in the middle, Beck struggles to survive amid violence and catastrophe as ideological clashes push inexorably toward open war

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