An impending solar flare threatens the crew of the Antares with dangerous radiation while the strange force in Pod 4 finally sends out a siren call that proves utterly irresistible.
It’s Halloween aboard the Antares and the forces of darkness are revealed in more ways than one, as feverish hallucinations jeopardize the lives of the crew just as they’re about to embark on a promotional event for which the whole world is waiting.
Drawing closer to the orbit of Venus, some members of the Antares crew struggle with guilt and experience vivid repercussions of past actions, while a serious accident causes the life of a teammate to hang in the balance.
It is a humbling moment for the crew of the spaceship as each of them deals with a personal point of no return, while the Antares crosses a critical boundary when going back to Earth is no longer an option and the home planet becomes just another twinkling light in a vast canopy of stars.
The crew of the Antares face their first major crisis when the ship inexplicably begins to shut down all of its operating systems, causing the sudden failure of power, heat and gravity controls, and plunging everyone aboard into chaos during the desperate search for a solution.
Taboos are broken and lines are crossed as the personal and professional relationships on the Antares and on Earth continue to intensify, while the unseen power behind the mission begins to create both cellular and psychological transformations among the astronauts.
With the Antares en route to Venus, the crew finds that some past choices, combined with an element in the ship’s mysterious Storage Pod 4, lead to a complex web of dreams, desires and illusions that result in a life-threatening crisis.
A team of eight astronauts, embarking on a six-year journey to explore planets in the solar system, find their lives and destinies intertwined and carefully directed, not only by Mission Control on Earth, but also by an unseen force which is much closer and far more powerful.