Capt. Nick Johns, a wounded and quadriplegic Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War, is approached by assertive government officials, who, unbelievably, recall him to active duty to serve humanity. He is chosen because of his self-sacrificing war record and his unique ability to survive depression resulting from his debilitating injury. To be more precise, they want his disembodied brain to command and become the spaceship, Genesis, for a two hundred year deep-space flight to re-establish the human race doomed to extinction from an asteroid.

One selfless but vastly superior, augmented mind must discover a way to honor his commitment to serve humanity and save the human race, even from itself. Capt. Johns must survive centuries of essential medical research and implementation, technical and societal challenges and disasters, long years of loneliness inherent to command, alien encounters, and possibly even Divine Intervention. Can the love of two women provide the balance he so desperately needs to endure or will they cause his demise?