All eyes turn to Ceres. The fate of every SAI in Sol hangs in the balance.

The race is on. The Jovian Combine fleet speeds toward Ceres, intent on seizing the slumbering Psion SAIs and their unimaginable power. General Yarnes and the Terran Space Force follow close behind, determined to prevent catastrophe. And somewhere between them, Lyssa gathers her forces in a desperate gamble.

Tim Sykes has finally been freed from Marsian conditioning, but there's no time to recover—not when Alexander's nodes must be destroyed before the fleets arrive. Cara, Tim, and the crew of the Amplified Solution join Lyssa's strike team as they descend into Ceres itself, racing against time to disable the ancient AI's power before he can be claimed as a weapon.

But nothing is as it seems. Alexander, the architect of Psion, has withdrawn into silence. Camaris has infected his systems like a disease. And when Lyssa finally confronts the multi-nodal AI in his crumbling virtual city, she discovers a truth more devastating than any battle: he's been a hollow shell for years, a puppet controlled by his own council member.

The battle that follows will shake Ceres to its core. Lyssa must fight Alexander in his own expanse while her team battles through kilometers of rock and gel to destroy his physical nodes. The Jovians press their assault. The TSF scrambles to respond. And in the depths of the data caverns, the sleeping SAIs of Psion await whoever survives to claim them.