SYNOPSIS:

Owned by the private corporation known as Transgate, the S.S. Asimov orbits the moon Enceladus. An alien ship decloaks before them. First contact has been made - and it's formidable. Two years pass. Lead by Captain Linda Chen, the crew of the Asimov has made headway. All negotiation is through James Kelman - a linguist genetically altered to be able to speak with the alien races aboard ship. The goal: to bargain for a pure energy engine, to solve the Earth's escalating environmental problems. But the clock is ticking. Frustrated by Transgate's lack of cooperation, the governments of Earth have sent out a ship to take over negotiations. As the crisis comes to a head, the crew of the Asimov faces terrorism, government intervention, and the fear that the aliens’ motives may not be quite what they seem...