Absolute power has awakened beneath a drowned Earth. Seventeen-year-old Mara Vey survives by piloting contraband through the flooded remains of America. Then an encoded journal left by her missing mother leads Mara, her foster brother Eli, and their gifted mechanic friend Tavi to the Krokernaut Crystal-an ancient artifact capable of magnifying thought into physical force. In the wrong hands, it could place the galaxy under one will. Destroying it means reaching the Great Vortex on distant Soteria. First, the three teenagers must evade rival governments across a storm-battered continent and secure passage aboard the Ascendant, a colossal Ark built by the Republic of Earth. Legal boarding is impossible for citizens of the enemy People's Democratic State, leaving them one desperate option: win three seats in a clandestine poker game and assume the identities of climate refugees. Aboard the Ascendant, survival is divided by class. The Chosen inhabit gardens and towers above. The Orphaned endure strict rationing in the crowded middle decks. The mutated Outcasts keep the reactors alive below. When the ship's water fails and sabotage threatens the launch, Mara and her friends must cross forbidden boundaries without exposing their origins-or the artifact hidden among them. As fear spreads, the crystal grows stronger, and a Republic commander closes in on its power. Reaching Soteria will require more than escape. It will require divided communities to decide whether control is salvation or another form of ruin. For readers of young adult dystopian science fantasy, interstellar adventure, climate fiction, and high-stakes space opera.
