The Belt Boom has transformed the asteroid belt into a lawless frontier where corporations, prospectors, and raiders fight for dominance. In this dangerous expanse, fortunes are made or lost in an instant, and the Hispaniola exists on the fringe of it all. Seventeen-year-old Jim Hawkins takes a hazardous job on the old freighter, hoping to clear his family's crushing debt to the omnipotent Orion Corp. The work is tough, the crew is hardened, and nothing is what it seems. When Jim discovers that a mysterious crate, designated AN-17, weighs ten times its manifested value and pulses with a strange warmth, he's drawn into a dangerous conspiracy. He finds a mentor in the enigmatic, cybernetically enhanced quartermaster, Silver, who teaches him the secrets of the ship and the harsh realities of life on the fringe. But as sabotage and betrayals unfold, Jim must decide who to trust. The contents of the crate are a prize sought by ruthless corporations and a mutinous faction of the crew. It's a treasure that could either rewrite humanity's future or get everyone killed. Jim's simple job has become a battle for survival and the soul of the cosmos.