What's worse: being sacrificed to a voracious red giant by religious fanatics, or being a disposable tool for the manipulative mastermind living inside your own head? For Lyle Koenig, this isn't a hypothetical question. It's the last choice he'll ever make. ​​​​​​​ Lyle Koenig has lived by one rule: look out for number one. But his luck just ran out in the airlock of an enemy ship. Captured by the fanatical Three Novas Corporation, he's seconds from being offered as a human sacrifice to their techno-god, the swollen red giant star Helios Ra. But his captors have no idea what they're about to unleash.