Practical Archaeology.

Against the Clock.

Against the Law.

On Planet Raster, the history books and archives only go back 54 years. There are only a few stars in the sky, and a totalitarian government suppresses knowledge by splitting families, assigning random names, and ruthlessly hunting down evidence of the past. Benny Summerfield is arrested, shovel in hand, as she literally digs for clues.

Government inquisitors have mere hours to decide whether Benny is mad or a dangerous revolutionary. Archaeology is a crime, and the penalty is death. Chained to a desk, locked in a room, Benny must use her forbidden skills to talk her way to safety, before the executioners arrive.

All she wants to do is go home. But until she works out where and when she already is, Benny has no means of pointing herself in the right direction. The answers lay in whatever disaster befell planet Raster before the slate was wiped clean. Benny must delve into the forbidden past, into the events of Year Zero.