Competitors
Sergey Lukyanenko
 A Moscow freelance journalist named Valentin Saphonov finds an ad on a pole from the Stellar Time Agency, inviting people to sign up to become a pilot of a space fighter. Assuming this is an ad for a computer game, Valentin goes to the address specified in the ad and is greeted by an attractive woman named Inna. She warns him that everything that what he is about to do is for real. She explains that, upon his agreement, a copy of Valentin's body and consciousness will be created on a remote space station, where he will receive a spaceship and will be involved in a fight against aliens. After walking him through several rooms, Inna sends Valentin through the back door of the office, explaining that his alter ego is already on the station. Valentin, believing all this to be a prank, decides to conduct an investigation of Stellar Time. He soon finds the gaming website for the popular Russian MMORPG StarQuake. He registers under the nickname Katran ( — "spiny dogfish"), unaware that his alter ego has received exactly the same nickname. Eventually, Valentin realizes that his character lives his own life and that all this may be actually happening. Valentin's double quickly ends up being kidnapped by the Seekers, a sect of people who believe that all they are experiencing is a computer simulation, just like in the Matrix. Valentin (AKA Katran) and his instructor Lena (AKA Driver) end up on the icy planet Nigredo, where all water (in every form) is black-colored but normal otherwise. The planet contains the hidden base of the Seekers. Master reveals that they have managed to obtain the plans for building an ultimate WMD — a weapon capable of extinguishing a star in a matter of minutes. They plan to use the Extinguisher to force those who have sent them into space to either unplug them (if everything is indeed a simulation) or return them home. After purchasing a new ship from Roman, Valentin and Lena go back to the Platform, where they have to face a tribunal-like hearing (albeit much less formal). During the hearing, a massive fleet of aliens known as the "Bugs" attacks the Platform, and every pilot is mobilized to defend the station. Many pilots are lost in the battle, but they manage to destroy most of the enemy ships and force the rest to retreat. Meanwhile, on Earth, the original Valentin realizes that something strange is happening with his in-game character and decides to investigate further. He contacts Lena via ICQ and invites her over to discuss in-game events. However, he quickly realizes that someone is trying to prevent their meeting from occurring. Lena arrives to his apartment, where she confirms his suspicions that everything they have been told at the agency is true — there really are copies of them somewhere out there, flying spaceships and fighting. Valentin receives a call on a phone which he turned off the day before, where an unknown person threatens him to drop his investigation and just play the game. The unknown person turns out to be a sniper on a neighboring roof. Valentin and Lena barely manage to escape in her car. They drive to Oleg, an acquaintance of Valentin, who is intrigued by their story. At Oleg's apartment, Valentin decides that they must contact their doubles and get them to return to Earth in their ships to threaten the agency. He takes a screenshot of the game's 2D star map and sends it to a local astronomer. Surprisingly, the astronomer fairly quickly manages to determine the location of the Sun on the game's map. Lena logs into the game as her other character (whose ship is operated by a bot in space). In space, Valentin and Lena are tasked by the administration to fly to a faraway planet, which has an abundant supply of certain rare elements needed by the Seekers to complete the Extinguisher. It is there that Valentin receives a message from his other self. The message explains how to find the Sun on their star map (about 330 parsecs away). They realize too late that the Seekers have tricked them and have made off with a substantial amount of the necessary elements, giving them all they need to build the weapon. They return to the Platform, where Valentin decides to share the information about the location of the Sun with Vadim Reshetov, an administrator, only to be knocked out and imprisoned by him. On Earth, in the middle of the night, Valentin and Lena decide to go to the agency and demand answers. They arrive to find two dead bodies (the agency's security guard and a young Jewish boy), who seem to have shot each other. They find the original Inna and Reshetov there and force them to explain everything. Apparently, Reshetov was approached by a shapeshifting alien several years ago who offered to trade alien technology in return for Reshetov's agency sending people into space. Reshetov considers himself to be a businessman and a patriot, as he wishes to use the new technology to help raise Russia about everyone else. He does not know the identity or motives of his mysterious benefactors, and their emissary (the security guard) is now dead. He offers Valentin and Lena positions at his agency, and they accept, realizing that there is little they can do. They resolve to try to convince every visitor to leave, but their attempts are revealed to be futile, as people yearn for this sort of adventure. On the station, the other Reshetov receives a message from the original and makes a similar offer to the duplicate Valentin and Lena. However, Platform sensors then detect the Seeker fleet close to the system's star. Reshetov sends Valentin and Lena as negotiators, as they know some of the Seekers personally. After docking with the Seekers' flagship, they once again meet Roman and Master. However, Valentin then realizes that their ships have likely been rigged to explode by Reshetov in an attempt to stop the Seekers. The bomb on Valentin's ship is thrown into space, while a Seeker takes Lena's ship far from the fleet and sacrifices himself to save the others. After finding out the location of Earth, the Seekers decide to undertake the long journey home. However, at their first stop, they are ambushed by an enormous "Bug" fleet. Roman orders everyone to follow him, as he sets course straight for the system's star (a blue supergiant later revealed to be Rigel). As they get closer, being chased by the "Bugs", Roman launches the Extinguisher missile, which explodes in the upper photosphere. The weapon creates an enormous shockwave which destroys the alien fleet, at the same time leaving a small tunnel at the epicenter, allowing the Seekers to pass through the exploding star. They jump to the next system, only to find a massive "Bug" ship waiting for them. Instead of attacking, the aliens send a message to the fleet, revealing their agenda for sending people into space and attacking the Platform every so often. Apparently, they use the humans to fight their offspring to weed out those with genetic weaknesses, as only the strongest would survive. This is a form of population control. That is why they have built the station and made a deal with Reshetov (and, possibly, others). They explain that nobody is forcing humans to go into space — they make this choice freely, as the agency employees are supposed to explain the situation truthfully. The reason for human infertility is simple — the "Bugs" believe it would be cruel to allow humans to bring children into an environment where they are constantly threatened. The "Bugs" make it clear that the Seekers (or anyone else, for that matter) should not attempt to reach Earth using ships, under the pain of death. The Seekers realize that they have no choice and decide to go back to the Platform. Valentin and Lena follow them, hoping that humanity may one day rival the "Bugs".