From candlelit negotiations to quiet acts of courage, this is a story of ropes and brakes, of generosity as strategy and grief as fuel. The choices are human; the consequences are cosmic. And the ending… you won't see it coming.Aberdeen, 2047: a rugged coastal city becomes Earth's unlikely doorway to the stars. When the Ollies—brilliant, brittle refugees—arrive with gifts that can heal and transform, industrial heir Bradley Maxwell inherits his father's fragile alliance and a question no nation is ready to answer: **who gets to decide what a civilization is allowed to become?**Boardrooms turn into war rooms; hospital corridors into ethics courts. Engineers draft "e;Red Rules,"e; clinicians insist on "e;care before custody,"e; and a tribunal of sheriffs and scientists writes law faster than fear can spread. Above it all waits the Mass, an ancient power with its own doctrine of "e;preservation"e;—and a hearing in orbit that may redefine progress itself.
