A winged nuclear-powered space ship sits on the bleak and frozen surface of a small moon orbiting an Old Earth-like planet in another solar system. The explorers are now moving back towards their ship after gathering scientific data and mineral samples.

Although frozen water has been found on this moon - it is at a temperature close to absolute zero and no heat differential has been found even in the inner core. Except for a faint indication of gasses on the blurred horizon - most of the atmosphere has long since vacated into space - leaving only the frozen surface.

The few stars that are visible show an unfamiliar pattern indicating this planetary system is far removed from the Old Earth system where man first tasted space travel and exploration millennia before.This expedition has been assigned the task of mapping several planetary systems in a remote fringe section of the galaxy - so far removed from the center that the millions of stars that make up what is still referred to as the Milky Way are no longer visible.

Thousands of scout ships engaged in similar exploration continue to uncover new, startling, and undreamed-of secrets as well as proving (and just as often disproving) the earlier theories handed down through the many centuries.