Allen Steele has won two Hugo Awards, a Nebula nomination, the Locus Award, the Asimov's Readers Award and the 1998 Science Fiction Chronicle Readers Award. Now, he presents a novel in which mankind's future lies not among the stars...but beneath the waves.<P>Tethys -- the world's first completely self-sufficient undersea research station. It is the stepping stone to a new frontier of life on Earth. Within this oasis of technology are those who seek to unlock the mysteries of the unknown deep. But they are not alone...