Book excerpt: The human race has extended itself into the far reaches of our solar system -- and, in doing so, has developed into something remarkable. The inner system of the Met -- with its worlds connected by a vast living network of cables -- is supported by the repression and enslavement of humanity's progeny, nanotechnological artificial intelligences whom the tyrant Amés has declared non-human. But the longing for freedom cannot be denied. And now a line has been drawn at Neptune's moon Triton, where those who oppose Ame's and hisfearsome minions await the foretold return of a mysterious man of destiny and doom who has vanished into the backwater of the Met. But resistance will only ensure the unspeakable onslaught of the dictator's wrath -- a rage that will soon ravage the solar system and plunge all of humankind into the fury of total war.