During the last throes of the Atlantic Alliance, right after the British Isles have been locked behind the Tech Curtain, Admiral Tse Deng of the New Outreach Navy returns from his nine year mission to the stars to find a certain level of stagnation has grown on Earth. By use of the Drendler Drive, he has visited a score of distant worlds, and bears news of many which can now be colonized; ones he found, explored, and categorized.'Ad Astra' is now...