A familiar shape emerges from the darkness - a large, metallic gray sphere held up by eight piston-driven legs sprouting from its top. While he should be terrified, Alek is strangely fascinated by the Spider as it draws closer - it's more than a robot, it's a living machine. And like most living things, it's not alone...

Alek Grey is a programmer who specializes in preventing break-ins to secure computer systems. When a company owned by his estranged father calls him in after their system is compromised, he is shocked to learn that his father is one of over forty people trapped in a revolutionary new form of neural interface. When an attempted rescue mission goes horribly wrong, Alek realizes that there is only one way to save the people he loves.

And that might mean risking the fate of humanity itself.