Publisher's Synopsis
What would the NSA do if it found out there are three aliens on Earth who know for a fact that the atmospheric changes we're experiencing are caused by destabilization of the Earth's magnetic core? That the Earth is going to lose its magnetosphere and its atmosphere and die, just like Venus? That the story the government is telling you, climate change is caused by carbon emissions, is a myth to get you to keep working and not loot the rich based on false hope you can stop the end of the world by changing your behavior? Desiree Mercedes is an Engineer from Star-X sent to Earth with Pilot Risk Coronet and Commander Theo Gold to learn why the Earth is still living when Venus has died. By 2020 they're in the final year of their 500 year mission having landed in 1519. Desiree has become the controlling shareholder of V Motors the top car maker - and the top fashion model in the world. She's presented with Elle, a model snatched from the slums by Ekert Khan a Brazilian industrialist gone rogue who believes fashion models are aliens from outer space. His partner Monty Zuma wants Desiree to make cars that will run on the genetically engineered fuel they grow. Now that Desiree has Elle, her company and her fame, she doesn't want to return to Star-X. Risk is an adrenaline junky who controls JetStream the top private jet maker. He's bored dividing his time between surfing in Hawaii with one girlfriend and skiing in Aspen with another. Until Iris Lau, a suicidal Red Army doctor whose only friend is the AI in her phone, is assigned by her father Captain Ducet Lau to steal JetStream's IP. Risk and Iris hit it off as a couple, always on the edge of a crash and burn, and Risk has no desire to leave Earth either. But Theo is determined to complete their mission, despite the mining fortune he's amassed in South Africa and his mysterious, ageless mistress Vala Sunderland. Knowing they'll need to get their Gold Sail to the Pole to leave Earth, Theo agrees to cooperate with a Russian oligarch on a polar mission, and attempts to convince Desiree and Risk to return with him to Star-X. When Captain Lau's Chinese hackers try to penetrate the JetStream servers, they find the data is stored in the fourth dimension. The Chinese interest in Risk tips off the Americans who connect Risk with Desiree and Theo and discover they also have unhackable servers - and they're involved with the Russians and Brazilians, setting off more alarms at the NSA. Then Desiree turns down Monty's proposal and tells Khan the truth - the Earth is heading toward the same fate as Venus. And Theo decides to read the data collected by the Gold Sail before returning to Star-X, and learn how much longer the Earth has before it dies. The NSA is desperate to stop them from contradicting the story that's preventing chaos on Earth. But as the spies dig deeper, the stakes get higher. The spies begin to suspect the three really are aliens - with invaluable secrets that will be lost if they're destroyed. How they sailed through space on the mysterious Gold Sail. How they rode the Invisible Ether, when Einstein proved it doesn't exist. How they lived on Earth for 500 years, and only aged ten. How they're other-worldly attractive and their appearance changes. As the spy moths are drawn closer to the alien flames, games of love and death unfold.