Dulphi and Varset are two young idealistic Azulians obsessed with the idea of becoming space explorers. As they age, their paths diverge. Varset realizes that his childhood dream of traversing the final frontier is an impossibility due to Yebra's ban on males enlisting in the space exploration program. He begins to question the motives of the core, finding that while the cadets always go in filled with patriotic zeal, wonder, and curiosity, those few that return are changed. Their personalities either hollowed out and filled with nothing or every fiber of their being soaked in malice and sanguinary hunger. Whatever they were doing up there, it wasn’t exploring the great unknown. Or at least, not in the way he had been led to believe. Dulphi however, sees only the money, power, and status the Explorers are greeted with when they return home and wants it for herself. She sees it not only as her one chance to escape the poverty caused by her mother’s death but also as a means of returning honor to her bloodline. Heavily inspired by the East India Company, Blood Meridian and Ender's Game. By Emma Groom and Kachi Lee.