Introduction

We are in the year 2102. For some time now the Earth has no longer been the only world inhabited by the human species: colonies, stations, shipyards and industrial districts now extend across numerous star systems, connected by routes travelled thanks to warp drives, which employ an artificial, metastable state of exotic matter known as Voidmass.

In less than a century interstellar travel has transformed the economy, redrawn political balances and moved the conflict over the control of resources, infrastructure and labour beyond the Solar System. Distances, however, have not disappeared: crossing space still requires weeks, months or years, and every new colony brings with it new forms of dependency, exploitation and inequality, often concentrated in the hands of the megacorporations that control access to resources, the means of production and the very material conditions of survival.

For some decades the expansion seems to confirm the idea that the galaxy is above all an immense and available space, rich in worlds to explore and resources to exploit. This conviction begins to crack, however, as the missions reach ever more distant systems. Within the space of a few years, three discoveries force humanity to reconsider not only its own place in the universe, but also the nature of the technologies that have made it possible to reach it.

The first concerns extraterrestrial life. Numerous worlds host complex ecosystems and organisms radically different from those of Earth. None of the species encountered so far has shown signs of intelligence comparable to that of humans, but this does not make them harmless: predators, parasites, pathogens and entire hostile biospheres have turned the exploration of some planets into an extremely dangerous activity.
The second concerns what came before. Recent findings demonstrate that a technologically advanced civilization preceded humanity by millions of years; some of the structures it left behind are still operational and possess a destructive power capable of annihilating entire flotillas within a few instants. No one knows what became of their builders, nor what entity, force or catastrophe may have put an end to so advanced a civilization.
The third concerns Voidmass itself. The substance that opened the interstellar routes to humanity appears to produce side effects that escape the understanding of scientists. During the longest voyages, these phenomena can manifest directly upon the crews, causing alterations of perception, impossible memories, shared experiences and other events as inexplicable as they are disturbing.

The chapters that follow retrace the century of discoveries, conflicts and transformations that has brought humanity to this point.