In 2300 CE Beckett Conroy, a young man alienated from his famous scientist father, Dr. Padraig Conroy, has taken up the new vocation of asteroid mining with his uncle's company. His new boss is Sid Conroy, owner of the Galactic Mining Corporation and the man to whom he had always turned when in need. Beckett's father, the chief geneticist at the World Genetic Foundation, is on the verge of a huge breakthrough in longevity but the potential discovery...