N01-5-2, Vil, has lived four hundred years as a second-class citizen, a reptilian hybrid created from creatures from the stars who left as mysteriously as they came.
Worshiped like gods, the ancient progenitors advanced humanity with gene therapy, which became their downfall, as the very DNA they relied on poisoned them. Relegated to traveling the galaxy with his ragtag reptilian crew, they set course to an abandoned military base on an old asteroid and find something the progenitors shouldn't have left behind frozen in wait.
N03-1, Noel, sits in wait for his rescuer. Every day, he puts out a single SOS call, his cryogenic stasis limited on how much his brain can process. Dimly aware of the passage of time, he sits in contemplation of his family that left him behind, the government that controlled him, and the legacy of pain and death that remains. Every day, he says the same thing. 'Today will be different.' When a hybreed soldier peers at him through the frosted glass of his stasis chamber, he knows it'll be different this time.