Dane was born on an Earth that was environmentally unsound: the result of industrial pollution that has encompassed the entire planet. He left to become a starship pilot. After a successful career, he returned to the planet of his birth to help his sister settle the estate of his parents, who have recently died. As the book opens, he is departing from Earth for the last time, in order to accept a job as the pilot of a revolutionary new galactic explorer called the GOmod-1 (Galactic Odyssey Model One). Sandy is an astrophysicist who was born and raised on the Settlements: giant, cylindrical space stations or platforms that occupy Lagrangian points in Earth"s orbit. She has discovered a "stellob" - a stellar object - which could possibly be a neutron star in the making. Dane and Sandy leave the space platform for the new platform being built by Brunel, in the location of the Trojan satellites in the orbit of Jupiter. Here they meet for the first time the genius if somewhat...