The world has been treading water for the first two decades of the twenty second century, technology continues to evolve but in a zero sum world violence is creating the new barbarians that could bring civilization down. In this world Paul Richards and his genius friend Cooper Paaly are working on a source of clean and nearly free power, but unknown to them they have stumbled across much more than a source of energy. When Coop vanishes with his invention Paul is left to clean up the pieces, but when Coop calls to ask for help from a mysterious lab in a desolate desert town Paul cannot resist and is rapidly drawn into a plan to build an outlaw colony on the moon, driven by an industrialist with grandiose dreams. But just when the dream takes flight global realpolitik takes hold and it is left to Paul and his small group of friends and followers to try and save the world from a new Genghis Khan.