Synopsis: The Stylite

Liva Dela Penya was once heralded as the most brilliant astrophysicist of the diaspora. Establishing the fundamental principles of Bright Wave Theory at the age of sixteen, she would go on to lead the extraordinary scientific effort that culminated in the discovery of the first Bright Wave more than a decade later: a gravitational artifact that functioned like a fold in spacetime and would usher in the Second Diaspora and the spectacular discoveries that followed.

But humanity's first effort to exploit the Bright Wave Phenomenon resulted in disaster when a minute flaw in the theory was revealed in dramatic fashion: one of the waves closed unexpectedly, leaving hundreds of people marooned on a space station thousands of light years from the nearest settlement.

Hard lessons learned, the march of progress continued unabated -- for everyone but Liva. Unable to reconcile herself to the tragic consequences of her failure, she has become a recluse in the years since the station was lost, shunning the accolades heaped upon her by history and dedicating herself instead to the pursuit of pure science.

Assigned now to a remote research lab she designed herself -- a particle accelerator powered by the electromagnetic jet of a millisecond pulsar known as The Black Widow -- Liva has everything she needs: her scientific instruments, her data, and (most importantly) the peace and quiet that comes from being a Bright Wave away from the rest of the human race.

But her past comes back to haunt her when unexpected guests arrive at the lab, including a precocious young journalist born on the cusp of the Second Diaspora -- and a murderer out for revenge.