Marooned on a frozen asteroid, Derec suffers amnesia, having no recall of who he is or where he is from. He stumbles upon a community of mining robots sifting through the asteroid as if searching for something. The asteroid is attacked by raider ships and destroyed, but not before Derec discovered what the robots were looking for. He escapes the asteroid with the artifact only to be captured by the raiders and ends up working as a mechanic and has to build a robot for the ship's leader. While on the raider ship he meets another human and allies himself with one of the aliens who will help him escape.

An explosion occurs and these three end up in a hospital on a spacer station deep in the universe. After recovering the artifact from the robot guards, it is from here that Derec learns the truth of the Key to Perihelion that he saved from the raiders and finds himself in a city like none that he has ever seen before. A strange and unimaginable city inhabited completely by robots where he and the other human, Katherine, become the two primary suspects of a serious crime that has occurred.

This story brings to life two scientific concepts: artificial intelligence and instantaneous space travel. This story depicts a future where robots are as numerous as humans and can "think" on their own. This science fiction novel generates suspense and interest, as every time Derec falls asleep or is knocked unconscious he seems to wake up in a completely different place.

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