The Oort Federation prevails against the Asterian invasion and consolidates its loose governance throughout the Solar System, guided by Chairman and former U.S. President John Butler. Udachny, Russian oligarch Isidor Orlov’s criminal empire, challenges Thorpe’s Solar System dominance. Masin Arcah and Adrhun Gloalorn, survivors from the Asterian attack on the Solar System, choose sides—Arcah with Thorpe and Gloalorn with Orlov.
After dramatically extending human lifespan, Thorpe terraforms Mars to create a vastly expanded living space mandated by human longevity. Thorpe and Orlov race to perfect the first true FTL starship. Their immediate goal is the Aster System, comprising two planets, Arcah’s homeworld Rogan, a planet operating as a wide-open, virtually no-government society, and Gloalorn’s homeworld Frohlic, ruled by the Boss, heading a many-thousand-year-old, planet-wide bureaucracy. Hoping to gain control of both planets, Orlov attacks Thorpe’s forces upon their arrival in the Aster System.
Following the conflict, both planets join the Oort Federation, while Thorpe and the Roganians advance stardrive technology and construct a large-scale, domed starship for a planned expedition to explore a region of deep space called the Cosmic Microwave Background Cold Spot.