Twelve years in the coding, John's artificially intelligent computer is smarter than it should be. The only catch is that John doesn't know it yet.

In the year 2251, the first of six manned expeditions outside the solar system, Eagle One, left Earth, on a mission to one of six nearby solar systems. Its mission was to chart the system, possibly bringing back anything useful it found there that wasn't in abundance in the asteroids being mined already around the Sun. Within six years, five others were launched, each sent a separate way, all expected to return around the year 2500.

When Eagle One returns to Earth, they aren't welcomed home. That's because there's no one there to welcome them.