Josiah is well on his way to recovering from his attempt to keep the Hahn-Wright Survey Station from falling onto the city of Beijing, China. He has just made his first public appearance and has returned to his quarters at the Wheeling Medical Center. Waiting for him are Doctors Axel and Ruth Weissman, and they offer him the position of primary pilot for a project that is intended to develop a faster than light drive.
On its surface, the success of any project would seem to be a straightforward sequence of events: Have a basic idea, prove the basic idea, put together the people and physical and financial structures needed, and go to work. However, as with all things of complexity, it's never quite that simple, is it?
The possibility of an FTL drive and a path to the stars will, if not immediately, then eventually, turn the thoughts of some people to thinking about the wealth and power that this technology could deliver. It is possible that developing an FTL drive will be easier than trying to keep from being murdered while you do it.