Sometime in the near future, human life is extended indefinitely. Human consciousness can be uploaded onto quantum chips where lives are lived out through programmed dreams.
In the near future, too, space travel to other star systems is also a reality. Lasers fired at the light sails of space-ships accelerate them to near light speed. Even so, close stars remain a lifetime away. Only the pioneers who have moved from a physical body to a quantum chip can make the journey.
Henry is one such pioneer. His destination is a rocky planet orbiting Trappist 1; a star 39 light-years from Earth. He exists disembodied within a chip. Henry searches his data-base of human lives, and relives them in a sequence of dreams. This is how Henry passes the time.
Against the backdrop of the Ukranian civil war, Henry wakes to find himself juggles with the lives of those near him as he searches for a destiny. From a monastery in Kentucky, Henry comes to terms with the impending death of his mentor as he recalls the tragedy of his first love.
This is Igor Martek's third novel. The idea of living a sequence of lives, as told here, emerged from various job postings to different corners of the globe; Ukraine, China, America. "Everyplace was different; only my human core was the same. Yet, I too was being transformed by every experience."