Halfway there, the crew succeeds in using gravitational lensing technology to take sharp pictures of the origin of the universe—and thus obtain the answer that reveals how the cosmos came into being and whether or not God had a hand in it. But no sooner does the crew tell Earth this than the radio communication goes silent, even though the ship is apparently functional. Is it a case of sabotage—or were the three astronauts overwhelmed with the answer for which science and religion have been searching for millennia? There is only one person who can figure it out. Former crew member Benjamin, who now lives on Earth, has his consciousness sent to Shepherd-1. Benjamin finds the spaceship empty. His friends seem to have fled. He is alone, 1.5 light years from the sun. There is no way back. But suddenly, Benjamin realizes that he is not the only living being on board after all...