Book excerpt: The Neiare departed the Ecuadorian port on a scheduled exercise along a bearing closely straddling the equator. The ship's working crew plus a technical staff of horticulturists were soon to be pulled violently from their normal monotonous daily routines. They would be cast into a myriad of terrifying, life threatening situations that had to be overcome in order to survive. As the ship's situation turns grave the staff fight to maintain their fragile life support systems. Gerald Gross and his covert “Sustain” group must deftly manage the remaining crew to battle on in order to stay alive. The odds are increasingly against their survival with each passing minute of indecision. Unknown to the bulk of Horticulturists, the work that they dedicated their careers to was about to become much more vital. This was a fact the other major nations in the world had been well aware of. Now their determined efforts to acquire the cargo that the Neiare berthed on board were intensified to a degree of terrifying desperation. The fate of hundreds of millions may now rest in “Sustains” hands. In summary each of the staff has a differing degree of knowledge as to the scientific importance of the genetically modified seeds that they work with. None of the staff have made the connection as to what the enormous value these products could have to the entire world in the very near future.