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By 2057 -- the centenenary of the Sputnik flight -- the solar system is being commercially exploited, and a steady stream of comets fuel the burgeoning new economies in near-Earth space, steered back home by huge nuclear-powered mining ships, in the same way as nineteenth century Britain was fed by its Empire. The miners call it Pushing Ice.

Bella Lind and the crew of the mining ship Rockhopper are nearing the end of their current mission cycle and desperate for some much needed rest and recreation - until the startling news arrives from Saturn that Janus, one of Saturn's moons, has abruptly and inexplicably left its natural orbit and is accelerating rapidly out of the solar system.

Layers of camouflage fall away, revealing that Janus was never a moon in the first place, but an alien machine of some sort. It's destination is a fuzzily glimpsed artefact in Spica, two hundred and sixty-eight light years away. Rockhopper is by far the nearest ship to Janus, and Bella Lind is ordered to approach and shadow it for a few vital days before it forever leaves the solar system.

Bella's crew agree by a narrow majority to accept the mission, but the seeds of dissent are sown even at this early stage. Days later word comes that the Chinese have launched a mission of their own; then it becomes clear that the company that owns the Rockhopper is doctoring information that Bella needs if the crew are to survive the mission....