Five posthumans working as a crew together for the first time are sent on a fact finding mission to a remote and seemingly uninteresting nebula. Their mission: investigate rumors of a large object hidden in the nebula, an object said not to be of modern posthuman design. Only one of the crew knows the identity of the expedition's mysterious backers and...what it is they fear.

"Born Into Shadows" is a short story set in The Posthuman Cycle universe. Our solar system is controlled by baseline humans who reject posthumanism, eschew genetic modifications and all body/mind augmentation, insisting upon the dominion of the genetically pure. The rest of the explored galaxy is inhabited by the posthuman diaspora, humans who accept and embrace (sometimes radical) body/mind augmentation as the final step in human evolution.