The United States is ready to make a triumphant return to the moon, striking out boldly into the solar system in an attempt to regain the confidence of the heady days of the Apollo program. But a shocking discovery at Shackleton Crater brings the first Prometheus mission to an abrupt halt. Remote robots have uncovered human skeletal remains - and forensic analysis at NASA reveals the corpse to be over 700 million years old. As the news of this discovery is leaked across the universe - and a battle rages over the truth of our heritage - the Event Group is tasked to unravel the mystery behind this ancient visitor. Colonel Jack Collins once again leads a team of the world's greatest scientists and philosophers on a journey that will take the Event Group into therealm of space and confront one of humanity's most pressing questions: Could something - or someone - else be coming to finish a war that began almost a billion years ago?