But the resistance is not dead, only hiding. A new generation of rebels is rising: Chris Libra, son of the Royan governor; Julie Vortex, older daughter of the original rebel leaders; and Liz Vortex, younger daughter of the murdered Vortex parents. At the moment the story begins, things are not going their way at all.

Chris has been betrayed and is being hunted by a group of Telezons, including the leader Nissok. Julie is mourning his imminent death and dealing with a potential traitor in her own organization. And Liz is sleeping with the Telezon leader. Into this quagmire falls Josh Crusade, an Earth native with extraordinary powers. Trying to escape a painful past, he crash-lands on Roya, witnesses Chris’ murder, and gets captured and tortured by the Telezons. His one hope for survival is the mystery telepath Josh senses as he reaches out during his torture.

Unfortunately for him, this telepath is Liz—and she wants nothing to do with guiding a stranger through the minefield of Royan society. She doesn’t even believe she has telepathic powers. Although attracted to Josh by something she cannot explain, Liz has her own problems and doesn’t need his added to them.

Julie, too, is struggling with problems—and Liz is a huge one. Her little sister attacks a Telezon guard, bringing near-fatal repercussions. And Julie has to keep hiding her involvement with the rebellion from Liz, because Liz can’t be trusted. But Julie’s biggest problem of all is Chris Libra—her rebel partner and one-time fiancé.

Because Chris didn’t die. Left for dead in the woods, he survived long enough to be rescued by Julie and Doc McIntyre, who had come to bury him. Safe in Julie’s underground bunker, Chris is not the man he was before. Physically debilitated by his injuries and mentally shattered by days of torture, Chris is a paranoid wreck of a man, trying desperately to regain his sanity.

Josh, meanwhile, is living in the insanity that is daily life on Roya. Few people even acknowledge him, not wanting to associate with the stranger. Only Julie befriends him, and Josh struggles to gain Liz’s trust. One day, he switches places with her in the mines, only to be caught in a cave-in and presumed dead.

Liz, however, knows he is not dead. As much as she denies it, they are connected telepathically, and she hears him calling for her. She slips out at night and rescues him, but not before they both succumb to a mine gas called Ganon. She and Josh, unconscious, are found by the Telezon guards and thrown in jail.

Julie, worried that Liz will be executed in spite of her status as Nissok’s concubine, still pushes forward with a daring raid on an explosive cache in the mines. She also has the awful task of telling Chris that his friend and spy, the Telezon soldier Rysed, has been found out, jailed, and tortured as a traitor. Chris immediately accuses Julie of turning Rysed in, and then turns his suspicion on Liz, knowing her position in Nissok’s harem.

Liz’s concubine status is not helping her at the moment. She and Josh await their fate in jail. Josh, blinded by the Ganon gas, shows off his telekinetic powers to her, and says that he thinks she has them, too. This brings immediate disastrous consequences. Liz is dragged up to see Nissok, who explains to her that he will use Liz and Josh’s DNA to create a super-race of Telezons, all having telekinetic and telepathic abilities.

When she returns to Josh with this news, he decides to break out of jail. In the midst of their escape, Julie’s raid on the mine causes a red-alert, and Liz and Josh barely escape into the secret tunnels to the bunker. Liz and Chris come face-to-face in the bunker, and it is a toss-up as to who is more surprised—the escaped concubine or the supposedly dead man. Neither is happy to see the other. During Chris and Julie’s courtship, there was no love lost between Chris and Liz.

Liz and Josh’s flight triggers a lock down of the colony, and Julie escapes to the bunker just before the Telezons can grab her to use as bait. In spite of Chris’ contention that Josh must be a spy, they agree to head for Josh’s ship, hidden in the mountains. Liz and Josh go ahead to do repairs, and Julie and Chris follow a week later.

All of their labors fall short, because damage to the ship prevents them from all leaving Roya together. Julie and Liz stay behind because Josh and Chris are the ones in need of medical attention. The goodbyes are painful, none of them believing they will ever see each other again.

The girls move out of range of the engine blasts, not speaking to each other. A rumble comes from the ship, growing steadily to a roar. Liz and Julie reach for each other, clutching hands without taking their eyes off the Tesseract. The blast from the rockets nearly blinds them, and the ship rises gracefully, steadily gaining speed. Soon it is barely visible against the backdrop of stars.