In order to prevent Andrew from joining his brother and father on Theon again, once he returned to Earth, Alexandra contemplates the destruction of the botanical garden, which had been their focal transportation site, thus cutting off all means of communication with Theon. Joshua banishes the leaders of the revolt and allows the childless couples to return to Earth. For the safety of both planets, the decision is made to sever contact between the two planets for two or three decades. Joshua sends a former astronaut, a Theonian contact, who was instrumental in the starship's disappearance, to accompany the returnees and to assist surreptitiously in Earth's space exploration.

Andrew, Joshua's Earth son, enters the space academy at an early age and several years later enters Earth's space program. As the years pass, he moves into leadership and assumes command of the spaceship, Pleiades. But on Theon, Adam, Joshua's alien son, has developed traits of the long-forgotten warrior class. Meanwhile the Crlllions, forgotten by the Theonians, continue to hunt for people to conquer, and for slaves to serve them. Unrelenting surveillance tracks signals directed toward Earth, coming from empty space, so the Crlllions launch an inter-planetary battlecruiser against Earth.

An explosion destroying one orbiting platform, manned by humanoids, catches Earth by surprise. All manned platforms are placed on alert. Station #3, near India, is being pulled into space by an unknown force. Earth launches the Pleiades under Andrew's command. Andrew fires Nuclear-tipped missiles in the direction of the unseen enemy. Station #3 is suddenly released after explosions in deep space. They wait for a counter-attack but it does not come.

The death of the Crlllion ship does not go unnoticed on Earth, on Theon, or on the Pleiades.

All of the witnesses were bonded by a 'communion of spirits' to one another, to the scene that exploded in their minds, and to the instinct for survival.

The Theonian assisting Earth's Space Program asks for Theon's capability. Joshua sends the weapons to Earth with his Theonian son Adam. Another Crlllion Armada is detected heading toward Earth. And a single battlecruiser, with the last of the civilized captives fleeing from Crlllion on board, is on an intercept course. Joshua decides it is time to neutralize the dark planet, Crlllion.

As the alarm is triggered in Space Command the Pleiades roars off the launching pad. Andrew learns that Adam is on board and is his weapons officer, and with that, knows what type of weaponry he now has. Andrew changes course as an explosion rocks his ship. Adam fires back. Blinding explosions light up the darkness of space as one Crlllion ship after another vaporizes.

Two ships from Crlllion survived the explosions. One with the madman in command, bent on savagery and destruction streaking toward Earth and a confrontation with Andrew and the Pleiades; the other, unknown to Andrew, Adam and the Earth Defenses, commanded by a leader fighting for survival and refuge, was rushing to intercept and protect the vulnerable Earth ship and in so doing, Earth.

The Space Command could not launch any missiles without endangering the Pleiades. Could the Pleiades stop the madman's apparent suicide attempt? The fate of Joshua's two sons lay in the balance as well as many lives on Earth if they failed.