After a forty-year journey from an Earth left teetering on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, the United Nations colonial starship *Unity* reaches the lone habitable planet orbiting Alpha Centauri's primary star, bringing with it the hope of a new beginning for the human race. Hope turns to ashes when, on final approach to the new world, a mysterious, malfunction damages the ship, triggering a crisis that results in the death of the captain and a rash of infighting over the ship's undamaged colony pods. The *Unity* breaks apart in space and seven colonial factions are scattered across the surface of the planet. As the *Unity* survivors struggle to rebuild human civilization on this strange and mysterious alien world, old tensions resurface and on man sets in motion forces that man destroy any dream of a lasting peace. Source: OpenLibrary