Investigating the disappearance of a secret Romulan fleet, the U.S.S.
Titan, commanded by Captain William Riker, is unexpectedly propelled
more than 200,000 light-years into the Small Magellanic Cloud. One of
the Milky Way's satellite galaxies, the Cloud is also home to the Neyel,
the long-sundered offshoots of Terran humanity, with whom the Federation
has had no contact in over eighty years.
Nearby, Riker's uncertain ally, Commander Donatra of the Romulan Warbird
Valdore, rescues a young Neyel, the survivor of a mysterious cosmic
upheaval that seems at times to be both unraveling and reweaving the
very fabric of space...the fulfillment of an apocalyptic vision that has
already claimed millions of lives. Titan's science team soon finds
evidence that the ravaging of Neyel space is the work of a vast and
powerful intelligence: the stirrings of a dormant consciousness that is
maintaining the existence of the Small Magellanic Cloud -- and all life
within it -- from one moment to the next. And if it should awaken, the
consequences are unimaginable.
As Riker considers his options, his new crew struggles with the
scientific and philosophical implications of what they've
discovered...while the young Neyel in their midst forges a bond with the
captain, conjuring old ghosts Riker has yet to lay to rest.