Before James T. Kirk, another captain stood on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, spearheading its mission of exploration into the uncharted reaches of the galaxy. He was a man driven to perfection, a brooding soul whose haunted eyes reflected the burden of the impossible standards he set for himself, and for whom his longtime science officer, Spock, one day would risk everything. Yet, little is truly known about the enigmatic Christopher Pike, the events that defined him, or the secrets that consumed him.

From the embers of his early childhood among Earth's blossoming interstellar colonies to the terrifying conflagration that led him back to the world of his birth; from the mentor who would ignite young Chris' desire to return to the stars, to the career he blazed in Starfleet that would end in supreme sacrifice — author Margaret Wander Bonnano takes you on the path of Pike's astonishing life, including his final adventures on Talos IV.