The nations of Earth send their best and brightest young minds to an elite training program sponsored by the Deep Space Navy. The Trident Academy, in close orbit of Neptune, is one of mankind's farthest outposts from its home shores. For the students, it is their school, their home, and their training ground for a future in the Citizen Service Program. Over a grueling six-year curriculum, they compete for rank while struggling to survive the brutal realities of life in outer space.

But when tragedy strikes, a small group of stranded students must work together to ensure their survival, battling attrition and mental exhaustion with an unknown foe in pursuit. As the children overcome internal and external threats, a deadly conspiracy is revealed that threatens to end their lives and change everything mankind knows about life in space.