Joan Cohen's people have thrived beneath Mars' turbulent surface by turning sandblasted caverns into cozy living areas, parkways and farms. The Nehemiah LLC group is both a strongly-knit, deeply faith-driven community and a team of life support experts.

Anthony Lewis is a quirky engineer, an outsider with a million questions about schedules, deadlines, and why Joan does what she does. Can they overcome their differences long enough to save their Space Empire from a crippling shortage of resources?

The gas-collecting balloon ship Sojourner lies dead in space, its life support inexplicably frozen. One lost repair ship means searching a vast maze of tubing. A single failed component planetside can halt dozens of projects and jeopardize the countdown to a critical launch window.

No light sabres. No warp drive. It's more like the real thing -- an Apollo mission plus floating farms plus Martian underground parks. "It won't fail because of me" takes on a whole new meaning.