This first of the four science fiction novels by Jim Cline centers around the adventures of building the first Anchored Tether Space Elevator, the first wheel-type Space Station in Low Earth Orbit, And the first Kinetic Energy Supported Transportation Structure to Geostationary Earth Orbit. It also includes the associated short stories and the technical background of the concepts in these stories.

Sequel to "Going Past the Town Prison" sci fi novel, Geodon and Nansella develop a way of life in exile on the previously lifeless Lava World area, where they bring earth-sourced life to bloom there. And in a universe then thought to not contain other life forms yet encountered, the two encounter not just one, but two life forms, the Rardats as friendly companions along with the unthinkingly deadly Mortzites, the Rardat's mortal enemies. Join Geodon and Nansella as they struggle to bring harmony in the complex web of alien life forms, technology, and people complexities as they find it.

An early generation starship enters geostationary planetary orbit around a desolate but potentially habitable planet, and begins offloading its colonists bred for this colony. The colonists set loose nanomachines to crumble the basalt covering the planet, then discover a volcano-looking structure that looks too symmetrical to be natural. When the advancing nanomachines reach this pseudovolcano, it collapses; the colonists realize there is an alien species on the planet and first contact has not gone well.