Two hundred million kilometers across, with a surface area that exceeds that of a quarter-billion worlds, the Dyson sphere is one of the most astounding discoveries the Federation has ever made. Now the U.S.S. Enterprise has returned to explore the awesome mysteries of the sphere. Intrigued by what is possibly the greatest archaeological treasure of all time, Captain Jean-Luc Picard hopes to discover the origin of humanoid life throughout the galaxy -- or perhaps the ultimate secret of the Borg.
But when a neutron star approaches on a collision course with the sphere, a mission of discovery becomes a desperate race against time. The many sentient species inhabiting the sphere face extinction -- can even the Starship Enterprise save them all?
Charles Pellegrino is one of the scientists who helped to create the field of forensic archaeology. He is the author of To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima, and has worked sites ranging from Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the Titanicand the cities of Vesuvius. With James Powell at Brookhaven National Laboratory, he co-designed the Valkyrie interstellar rocket, which makes an appearance in The Killing Star and also in the Avatar films. Pellegrino works closely with James Cameron, who, along with George Zebrowski, tends to be “a little apocalyptic.”