If you've stared hard into the undulating fractal patterns of the deepstream, or hacked into the more obscure paths of the dataflow, you may have glimpsed him, an abnormal pulse of living data burning through megaclusters like digital fire. Owens has no more physical existence; as an imperfect ghost upload, he only has fragmented memories of his corporeal life. He doesn't even know what happened to make him this way, or if his real self is even still alive. He is free to roam the world of information unhindered -- but forever cut off from the world of flesh. That's all right with him, though; from what he's heard, things aren't so great out there anymore. He has taken on the task of diving to the furthest depths of the dataflow in search of the most ancient caches of information. Much of it is useless -- pictures, media clips of a bygone age -- but here and there are powerful secrets. Documents, encrypted files, things that the Corporation tried to bury or simply forgot. He recovers and protects them, knowing that one day, they will free the entire galaxy...