Science Emergence

Five years after a bioweapon called the XBU Virus is accidentally released from a Canadian government laboratory and eradicates 99.5 percent of the global population, survivors Astra Fallon and Jude Waverly emerge from her family's underground bunker. Astra's younger sister, Hope, had been taken at the beginning of the outbreak to a government compound known as the Closure because of her possible rare immunity to the supervirus. But Astra and Jude quickly discover the compound is no longer a government-secured scientific sanctuary.

The founder of the Humem State Foundation portends and advocates the next stage in our cultural evolution - the creation of a state for our extended presences - our personal imprint on the world exterior to our bodies. Brook advocates establishing formally recognized citizen-like entities, called humems, each encompassing an individual's digital extended presence, within a dedicated landless state environment - the humem-state. He demonstrates how this revolutionary but imminently feasible system can be incrementally instituted within existing jurisdictions....

The nuclear winter has ended. Survivors cautiously begin to peek out of their underground shelters, each having endured their separate trials. They emerge into a foreign land wiped bare from the ferocious storms and glaciers. Many find signs directing them to a land prepared, but the journey over inhospitable terrain is daunting. In the protected valley, life begins anew. Two groups have fragmented the peaceful valley, each certain they are right in their beliefs. The barrier still stands, holding off the harsh weather, but for how long? Something dark has begun gathering.

Aliens have destroyed the Earth. They left behind 18 million survivors who will never forget what has been done to their world. They turn to Mason Randle, who will do everything in his power to see that the Human race survives. Earth can no longer support life. The Moon, Mars, and the asteroids now provide safe havens for the stunned survivors. They find a protector in Major Wade Nelson. A dedicated marine who is willing to take the fight to the enemy.

Ancient cultures have been looking up at the stars for thousands of years, wondering about their place in the universe. What were those glowing spots in the black cover of night? Just how far away was the moon? These and other questions hounded humanity through the millennia until, finally, relative economic stability allowed for a number of people to examine their world more closely. Slowly, knowledge and understanding accumulated generation by generation until the conditions were ideal enough for a revolution to occur in thinking, experimentation, worldview, and natural philosophy.

Drake’s a very angry and (quite literally) heartless orphan obsessed with avenging his parents. Balt is a sometimes-thief from another world who’s trying to get home and maybe make some friends along the way. Cammie is an agent who just wants to retire. And then there are the hand hats. Together, they confront an evil greater than any of them have imagined.