"From eight hundred years in the future, a runcible gate is opened into the Polity. Those now coming through it had been sent specially to take the alien 'Maker' back to its home civilization in the small magellanic cloud. Once these refugees are safely through, the gate is rapidly shut down because something alien is pursuing them. The gate itself is then dumped into a nearby sun. From those same refugees agent Cormac learns that the Maker civilization has been destroyed by a devastating virus known as the Jain technology. This naturally raises questions: why was Dragon--that massive bioconstruct of the Makers--really sent to the Polity? And why did a Jain node suddenly end up in the hands of someone capable of wreaking the most damage with it?"--Publisher's description.