Growing up alone on a spaceship with only two hundred kids and a talking computer named Mother to keep him company, Johnny Turnbull never knew that he was any different than most people. Sure, he's the only one who can talk to Mother, but until he arrives on Orbis 1, he doesn't think that this skill is anything too strange. Soon, however, he finds out that he's the first human softwire, a being able to communicate with computers. This ability is very rare, and has never been seen in humans, not only on Orbis, but ever.