Brilliant Academy graduate Mara Kast is part of an idealistic young crew about to embark on a distant voyage to explore an alien world. Close to her family, she is both excited and nervous about leaving home world of Kanali. Accompanied by her classmates, the journey on the starship Infinity leads them to the planet Valdos Prime, a world strangely similar to Kanali. There, they not only discover an alien race hovering on the edge of extinction, they discover that both worlds are connected to an even more ancient world on the far side of the galaxy.