Proteus Rising Book

It is the year 2331, and humans have increased their dominion and spread throughout the solar system in permanent settlements. On Mars, where survival has required genetic augmentation, a distinct Martian race has emerged, while on Earth, a vast technocracy has moved to radical genetic enhancements. This is the Mars that physicist George Mills returns to after being called to a disturbing meeting with his Earthly benefactors. George is starting to suspect that unknown forces are slowly peeling away the layers of a secret that he and molecular biologist Joanne Zhu initiated in a fertility clinic fifteen years earlier. In George's absence, a mysterious Earth scientist was brought to Mars on the giant military cruiser Saratoga to investigate a group of unimaginably gifted children living in a modest neighborhood of the Martian Domes. Despite George and Joanne's efforts, the authorities soon discover the emergence of a new nonhuman species, and the existence of the most powerful computer ever created. So starts a tense and paranoid chess game between a small group of scientists and the invincible security forces of a fleet admiral in a desperate gambit to save a group of synthetically bred children from imprisonment and medical experimentation.