Synopsis

These are the stories of Lee Wei, aka "the Outfitter," and his gorgeous sidekick Chloe Montaigne, who live on Nexus, a very strange place. You see, Nexus is actually a spatial distortion, a crack in the fabric of the universe.

Nexus is littered with portals, or gateways, which rapidly transfer those who pass through them to far distant places (and occasionally, times).

The portals are artificial, created by a race calling themselves the Trusci, who seemed to have vanished several centuries ago, leaving very little trace. Archaeologists have, however, discover that certain historical "missing links" are, in fact, relics of terrestrial habitation my the Trusci. The role the Trusci had in human history is still subject to debate.

Fast forward.

At Nexus, Lee and Chloe hook up with Tia, an escaped pleasure slave who was granted asylum, and subsequently educated on Nexus. Tia is now employed by the Nexus administration, recruited originally as an apprentice to Sydney, who has friends in high places.

Sydney is majordomo and head of security for Hadrian, the head of the Nexus government, or at least whatever informal administration passes for one. Hadrian serves for life, or until he gets tired of it, whichever occurs first. His primary, actually only, Constitutional responsibility is to decide those disputes he selects, brought before him by the residents of the Nexus member worlds. That is, until Hadrian decides on early retirement.

Right after Hadrian retires, things get ugly. The portals sporadically quit working. Travelers are stranded. Commerce is disrupted. Nexus food supplies start to run out. Diplomacy breaks down. People are afraid.

The portal creators, the mysterious and musically inclined Trusci, are back, singing and tinkering. They apparently have no idea of the consequences, and apparently don't care. To make matters worse, the Nexus administration doesn't know where they are or how to communicate with them.

Through a twist of fate, the problem lands in Tia's lap, who enlists Lee, Chloe and Sydney, because of their unusual individual talents, to get out of this one.

The foursome battle the immediate litany of problems while searching for a way to communicate with the Trusci, and a permanent solution to portal stability.

Contact! The Trusci are fascinated that humanity has survived, indeed flourished. They actually thought humanity on earth died out. It's been a very long time since they checked.

The Trusci stabilize the portals for humanity, and allow their continued use. Life gets back to normal on Nexus.

As quickly as they came, the Trusci vanish, leaving behind a mysterious song with, what some consider ominous, lyrics ...

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Synopsis v2