Synopsis: Beyond the Human

The bitter conflict between the American Empire and the United European Federation has come to a close. Alessa Reynard finds herself in a curious position: she is fascinated with a man who is at the heart of her country's most bitter enemy.

Azriah Shepard is head of the Empire's 'selection' programme: the world's most successful implementation of a real-world (read: functioning) meritocracy. But to the world--and especially Alessa--he is so much more. He is a visionary who proclaims a future attainable by humanity, if they would only begin genetic modification. Death will disappear, magical powers can be acquired, the infinite is attainable!

Alessa is a brilliant young scientist, an expert in genetics who can read gene sequences as a second language. Given her skills, she becomes a prime candidate for the Exchange--a daring program for peace proposed by the young Empress of the Americas. Together with 17 of the other brightest minds in the UEF, they will travel to the Empire and see a country which has remained off-limits during the century-long war.

She has been assigned to Azriah's research lab. Can she help him unlock the future of humanity?

But, as that nascent future begins to take shape, a bigger question comes into play: should she?