Lux and many followers have moved to Mars to escape persecution on Earth.
The ability for easy travel throughout the solar system has created nations and organizations on Earth who want to control Mars and the rich resources of the solar system. Mars has started its own military and is building a fleet to survive the brutal attacks from Earth. Mars has set up embassies on Earth and is facing spies and saboteurs intent on disrupting a content populace that is growing rapidly. Lux has developed new weapons, and Prissy joins the colony military. Mars (Lux) has developed interstellar probes to look for habitable planets and has finally found a habitable moon of a gas giant at Sirius A—8.6 light years from Mars. A preliminary ship is sent to examine the planet, but contact is lost, so a larger force is assembled to follow up. The story becomes more complex as a colony is established, but nation-states on Earth decide that a planet devoid of human life is a prize worth seizing. They intend to remove any human life so the large corporations can strip resources without any regulations holding them back. Surely, a new verdant planet with untouched resources shouldn't be hoarded by a few thousand people of little importance...it should be available to any people who want it... right? Mankind is using up the resources of the Earth—here's a new planet to plunder. How do you protect a nearly uninhabited world? Is it possible? Lux, Prissy, and Anna think it is... Lux has discovered a way to travel to the stars, but it is more like naval cruises into uncharted territory. It is treacherous outside the heliosphere, and people are still people. All the Earth's nations are producing ships within the solar system, and it's like a new gold rush. What happens to a civilization when interplanetary travel is unlimited, and the only law is the law of survival? What will the fanatics do when they feel too restricted by Earth's laws and policies, and they can set up their own colonies? Are humans the ones that claim the rest of the galaxy? Are we the first and only? Alexandre Dumas (circa 1865) said the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limitations. This is particularly true in politics and space exploration. This is also true between morals and greed.
