On the verge of extinction, the Stephen’s Point colony must take desperate measures to save themselves. Without communication or resupply from Earth for the last fifteen years, the colony has but one chance to survive: restore the ancient starship Chimera and train a young crew to pilot her. The fate of the entire colony rests on the shoulders of a pair of misfits: Theo Puck, a sixteen-year-old hacker with a gift for speaking to machines, and fifteen-year-old Selena Samuelson, a brash but talented pilot with a dark secret in her past. To Theo, the Mandate to crew the Chimera seems like a game—one he isn’t invited to play. A brutal murder changes everything. Left with no choice, Theo has to complete the Selection training and make it aboard the Chimera or face terrible consequences. Selena wants to do what she does best—fly. Piloting her father’s ore trawler is the only life she’s known before a horrifying accident strands her aboard the Hydra, the station responsible for rebuilding the Chimera. Forced into the Mandate testing against her will, Selena encounters an unexpected ally, forever changing the way she sees the Chimera and herself. Forced to make brutal choices in order to survive, Theo and Selena’s fates intertwine. But behind the scenes, someone else sets into motion events that could destroy everything they’re fighting to protect.

The people of Stephen’s Point have put years into rebuilding the Chimera, their last hope for a return to Earth. As preparations continue, the ancient ship sleeps, bound by her strict protocols. Theo Puck finds himself drawn to the mysterious girl from the rim, Selena Samuelson, convinced that she holds the secret to waking the Chimera. Meghan Ziczek watches as Theo and Selena grow closer, but the fulfillment of her own dreams of leadership give rise to a growing respect for the outsider. Marcus too wants the Chimera woken. But unlike Meghan, his leadership has nothing to do with saving Stephen’s Point—his hatred for Selena nearly equal to the desire to control Theo. Will his dark impulses overwhelm them all? When an exchange ship suddenly bursts through from Fractal Space, celebration erupts. Contact with Earth has been reestablished, the colony is saved from the brink of starvation … or are they? Instead of much-needed food and supplies, the exchange ship is full of nothing but the dead. A gruesome and horrifying delivery. With Earth's fate called into question, Stephen’s Point descends into chaos. Tasked with fulfillment of the rebuild and return Mandate, Chief Moorland will stop at nothing in her quest to wake the Chimera and prepare the ship’s young crew. But can anything prepare them for what they might face at Earth? In the explosive new chapter to the Universe Eventual series, “Helios” will leave you breathless.