Aliens offer links to an interstellar community if Earthlings qualify, but Kuiper Belt outlier, Jezibel is determined to sabotage the test unless Commander Smith can decode cave markings left by the visitors 75,000 years earlier. Failure means release of 15 billion pods to populate the solar system with alien beings.

SYNOPSIS:

In the year 2532, Earth holds a population of 30 billion and land values skyrocket to $100,000/ft^2. The United World Administration wrestles with the overcrowding and forbids emigration by Outlier colonists envious of Earth’s warm weather. To make matters worse, a fleet of alien spacecraft is inbound, preparing to drop off 15 billion seed pods to further their lineage.

United World scientists greet the invasion with trepidation, but the aliens offer links to an interstellar community provided the terrestrials demonstrate their technological achievements by passing three challenges.The contest is interrupted by Jezibel, an Outlier from the fringes of the solar system. Commander Smith sets out after her, but crashes on Titan and is taken to Outlier headquarters in the Kuiper belt where she tells of life growing up on sparsely populated Pluto with her outlaw father.

Time is running out when Commander Smith escapes and is picked up by a Europan Ice Freighter. Despite his agoraphobia, he returns to Earth via Daisy’s shuttle service to complete the last challenge by decoding 75,000 year old markings in Blombos Cave, left by the aliens during a previous visit. While Commander Smith and Daisy desperately search the paintings, the deadline passes and a rag-tag Outlier armada invades the inner solar system where terrified Earthlings face alien warships about to re-populate our planets. In a desperate move with the help of Daisy and Jezibel, Smith discovers a horrific secret about the alien invasion.