Sam Austin has led a long and storied life. He's been an Apollo astronaut and an inventor. He's served as the president of the United States for ten nonconsecutive terms, which should be impossible. Then again, Sam's an impossible individual-he's over 180 years old, and looks as hale and youthful as he did when he walked on the moon in the early 1970s.

The secret to Sam's longevity lies among the stars, and it's to the stars his thoughts always return. Sam's sunk his vast resources into the development of humanity's first functional faster-than-light propulsion system. Now he and a few thousand brave souls prepare to reach Citadel, an Earth-like planet in a distant star system.

Citadel represents a great leap forward for mankind, but quickly offers proof old villainies die hard. When betrayal and a botched invasion lead the colonists to declare independence, Sam finds himself the founding father of a new nation-a nation the current US president vehemently opposes.

As Citadel takes its first tentative steps toward statehood, all eyes are on the planet. Not all of them are friendly. A few aren't even human.