It’s 2026, and catastrophe has struck from an unexpected source. The Alpha Centauri supernova has risen like a second sun, rushing Earth toward its last summer. Floods, fires, starvation, and disease paralyze the planet. In a blue aurora flash of gamma rays, all microchips worldwide are destroyed, leaving an already devastated Earth without communications, transportation, weaponry, or medicine.

The disaster sets three groups of survivors on separate quests. A militant cult seizes the opportunity to free their leader, known as the Eye of God, from the long-term coma to which a court sentenced her. Three cancer patients also search for a man in judicial sleep: the brilliant scientist–and monstrous criminal–who alone can continue the experimental treatment that keeps them alive. From a far greater distance come the survivors of the first manned Mars expedition, struggling homeward to a world that has changed far beyond their darkest fears. And standing at the crossroads is one man, US President Saul Steinmetz, who faces a crucial decision that will affect the fate of his own people–and the world.

For millennia, humankind and the other intelligent races have studied the bizarre and unfathomable constructs of the legendary beings known as the Builders. But still, they are no closer to figuring out who–or what–the Builders were, or where they have gone. For Darya Lang, who has single-handedly cataloged their artifacts for the rest of the universe, finding the Builders has been a life-long dream. To Louis Nenda and the Cecropian Atvar H’sial, the Builder artifacts represent a once-in-a-lifetime shot at untold wealth, and adventurer Hans Rebka has his own dreams of unraveling their mystery.

Then, on the world called Quake, during a period of planetary upheaval known as Summertide, a small group of humans and aliens witness the culmination of all those years of watching and waiting as the planet opens up–and something comes out.

Earth has been ravaged by galactic disaster–but the real devastation is yet to come.

The end draws nigh …

The year is 2053, and Earth has barely recovered from the Alpha Centauri supernova that destroyed much of the planet’s infrastructure. Now the supernova’s residual effect–a storm of high-energy particles–is racing toward it, and an international effort has been launched out of the Sky City space colony to save the planet. But the controversial plan to build a giant protective shield is falling dangerously behind schedule. A series of unexplained murders has disrupted the Sky City workforce, so much so that a brilliant but monstrous criminal has been enlisted to track down the Sky City killer.

Then more startling news arises. Evidence indicates that the supernova was deliberately engineered and that the lethal particle storm will arrive sooner than anyone expected. But who–or what–tried to destroy the earth? And will the answer come in time to save it from its final apocalypse?

It was just before Summertide, when the planet Quake would orbit closest to its sun, subjecting itself to vast tidal forces. It was to be the most violent Summertide ever, creating something that only happened every 350,000 years.

Access to the unstable Quake was supposed to be prohibited, but some very insistent travelers were determined to make the trip. Professor Darya Lang, who studied artifacts left by the long-vanished aliens called the Builders, had a hunch that she might find the Builders themselves. And Councilor Julius Graves was hunting murderers. Planetary Administrators Hans Rebka and Max Perry had no choice but to go to Quake, risking their lives to protect the others—and to learn, just maybe, the secret of Summertide and the Builders.

The search for the Builders, the legendary alien race whose unfathomable constructs continued to perplex scholars and explorers alike, had led Builder expert Darya Lang, adventurer Hans Rebka, and treasure hunters Louis Nenda and Atvar H’sial to an unknown Builder artifact far outside the spiral arm. There they found the Zardalu, once the greatest menace ever known to the worlds of the spiral arm, enslaving entire races and exterminating others, guided by an unswerving belief in their own supremacy.

The only chance to eliminate the Zardalu threat was to wipe them all out before they had time to breed back up to strength and once again threaten civilized beings everywhere. But as they closed in, it was becoming clear that the Zardalu and their world were closely entwined with the fate—and the plans—of the Builders themselves.