3470 c.e.

A group of friends and colleagues from Earth University get permission to colonize and farm a planet 27.3 light years from Earth in the binary system of Chara 2. The story is told through the eyes of Athena, one of the first people born on the farm planet, Hypatia. Besides learning to accommodate the planet?s natural events, and to get along with species from other planets, the inhabitants of Hypatia must learn to defend the planet, and the young people when they?re away at school in another solar system, from hostile species.