Karl Hiltner

An ancient spacecraft orbits silently in near absolute zero, on a 105 year orbit between Uranus and Neptune. The first advanced civilization on Earth was destroyed 400,000 years ago by a volcanic caldera disaster, but not before it was able to preserve the DNA record of all Earth life, and the 23 chromosomes of frozen human genetic material in the orbiting craft. Prior to the disaster, Earth has succeeded in establishing a new human settlement on Mars, where an industrial and mining colony has been working for decades.

The characters — Humboldt, Alfrieda, Konstantina, Rotfach, Shlater, Zabana, and Lt Col Oestrum — directors, lawyers, scientists, technologists, artists, engineers, soldiers — interact socially, individually, and express their emotions and their piquant views, desires, regrets, as they witness the loss of the old world for the new.

And MSL, the Mars Science Laboratory launched in 2011, whose "Curiosity" rover reveals an ancient truth.

Contents:
Epilogue
I Wind
II Quaternary Unikaret
III ARK
IV Eden
V 541 Return
VI Search
Prologue