The galaxy is divided in two by an invisible spherical barrier, on one side of which the physical laws familiar to us operate, and on the other side people are capable of direct control of dark energy. The border runs along the Orion Arm, and the Earth was unlucky to find itself at the border where two civilizations leading aggressive space expansion collided... The basis of the power of one of them lies in technologies that are far ahead of those on Earth, and the core of the other is what on Earth would be called magic. A century and a half ago, both civilizations fought in a battle for the solar system, and at that moment the fate of the primitive aborigines who inhabited the third planet did not interest them at all. One hundred and fifty years later, among the descendants of the few surviving earthlings, this battle is known as the Alien War.