Before Captain Maria Roszak patrolled the stars in ships that defied known physics, her mother, Dr. Elena Roszak, confronted the terrifying genesis – and the devastating cost – of that power.

When a 50,000-year-old alien wreck is unearthed, Polonia Prime’s foremost xenoengineer, Elena Roszak, is tasked with unlocking its secrets. Within its impossible geometry lies the key to faster-than-light "bubble drive" technology – Polonia Prime’s only hope against encroaching interstellar threats.

But understanding comes at a terrible price. The alien intelligence communicates only through a torturous neural interface, a process that unleashes lethal radiation, consuming Elena's vitality with every revelation. As rival powers loom and her own body betrays her, Elena races against a relentless clock. Each monumental breakthrough for her colony’s salvation pushes her closer to an unforgiving precipice.

Can one woman’s fierce determination bridge eons of alien knowledge before she’s consumed entirely? And will the future she risks everything to forge for her beloved daughter, Maria, justify the agonizing sacrifice required?