Originators (Netherspace #2)

Contact with the alien race, the Gliese, was made forty years ago, but communication with them remains impossible. There is trade, but on seemingly inexplicable terms; anti-gravity technology traded for a bicycle tyre. Human science has become fixated on understanding the alien technology, but with little success. The world may be a better place but it's no longer our own, with mankind dependent on inexplicable Faster-Than-Light technology, controlled by the aliens.As humanity begins to colonize the stars, we are still dependent on mysterious aliens we do not understand. It falls upon the unlikely team of a conceptual artist, Marc Keislack, and assassin, Kara Jones, to embark on a dangerous mission that will unearth the mystery of the Gliese.