Thanks to the treachery of an all-but-omnipotent alien known as Wheeler -- mathematician Jack Potter's former business partner in the trade of alien and human technologies -- Earth has become the graveyard of billions. When Jack refused to find new worlds for Wheeler to despoil, the unscrupulous alien terminated their relationship...along with every living thing on Earth. But Jack and a handful of others escaped the holocaust by using an alien technology known as the gateway that allows instantaneous transmission of matter over vast distances. Now these few survivors are all that's left of the human race. Meanwhile, Wheeler is out to finish what he started...and Jack's only hope is the gateway. If he can hack into the device and decrypt its alien coding, he may learn the secret of a power great enough to destroy even Wheeler -- if it doesn't destroy Jack first.