There's no turning back. The year is 2085, and a new teen has arrived at Mars Experimental Station One, a colony built to test humans' ability to live self-sufficiently in an alien and hostile environment. Already in existence for ten years, "Marsport" is a functioning city of two thousand people -- with only twenty teenagers. These teens, part of the controversial Asimov Project, were hand selected from the billions on Earth and are always under the watchful eyes of the adults. The newcomer, Sean, is a fifteen-year-old orphan who acts tough but secretly thinks he can't measure up to the others. His companions are Jenny, also fifteen, an ethereal blond whose frail looks belie her fierce intelligence, and Alex, a fourteen-year-old pilot in training who doesn't always know his boundaries. They each have reasons to doubt themselves...and distrust each other. But one thing is certain: Mars offers them something Earth never could. When the existence of Marsport is suddenly threatened, the group must overcome their fears and join forces, for their survival depends on nothing less.

Five months into their undercover search for the pirate Jack Steele, Captain Hunter and the Aurora head for the island of Tortuga to put in for repairs after a battle with a deadly Spanish ship. Davy Shea, now fifteen years old and accepted by the Aurora's crew, continues to help his uncle Patch in the ship's surgery, but Captain Hunter has a special mission for him.

The Captain has learned that captured British officers are being held on the island for ransom from the Crown, and he is determined to rescue those officers, even risking the Aurora's cover. As a servant boy, Davy can easily pass among the various pirate groups thriving on Tortuga.

But as Davy begins to uncover the many secrets and deceptions that shroud this beautiful island, he soon realizes that more is at stake than the lives of a few captured officers. A plan is in the works that will force the pirate hunters on the Aurora to make new alliances...and bring them face to face with former enemies.