Jim Endicott is not Jim Endicott anymore.

In Step into Chaos, he became one with the Omega Point, and used its awesome intelligence to alter his own past. In that alternate Universe, he didn't kill the man he had always thought of as his father. He saved him.

But does the alternate Jim remember the old Jim? Only dimly aware of his vast Omega powers, Jim "Evanston" must deal with a heartbreaking new revelation: Carl and Tabitha, the "parents" he saved, are not really his parents at all! Who are they? And why are they sending him away--as far away as it is possible to send anyone?

Jim finds himself aboard the Out Beyond, a world-sized intergalactic starship, crammed with tens of millions of misfits, outlaws, and eccentrics. No longer the golden boy on the fast track to the Space Academy, Jim is friendless and alone--until he meets up with the Stone Cowboys, a deep space street gang that teaches him hard-earned lessons about courage, loyalty--and love, in the fetching form of a "cowgirl" with a faint raspberry smell and the biggest eyes in the known universe.

Jim's new life with the Cowboys and his former Omega destiny seem to have little to do with each other, until a strange new mental illness appears, spreading like wildfire through the Out Beyond. It's called the Rage and it doesn't exactly kill people. It makes them kill others, beginning with the ones they love the most. . . .

In this fourth Quest for Tomorrow novel, famed Star Trek veteran William Shatner continues a bestselling series that is filled with memorable characters, crackles with high-tech action, and is crammed with thought-provoking science fiction ideas and settings. Each carefully researched Quest for Tomorrow adventure is complete with a scientific bibliography designed to assure accuracy, provide technical guidance, and suggest fascinating new directions for young readers to explore.