"When five sentient digital beings -- condemned for over three hundred years to crew the small survey ship by the all-powerful Company -- encounter a mysterious black sphere, their course of action is clear: obtain the object, inform the Company, earn lots of praise. But the ship malfunctions, and the crew has no choice but to approach the sphere and survey it themselves. They have no idea that this object -- and the transcendent truth hidden within -- will change the fate of all existence, the Company, and themselves"-- Provided by publisher.