Having escaped Ætheria, Aral and Rex take refuge on Cthonia near the impact site of Ætheria's power plant. At the same time, a team of armed Cthonian scouts sets out to recover their dead from the destruction. Among them, the Ætherian refugee Máire Himmel offers her knowledge of Ætheria to identify remnants of the destroyed power plant. Upon her arrival, though, Rex recognizes Máire as his mother, who was forced to leave him with a foster father sixteen years before. "The Wreckage of the Past" is book #5 from "Vertical World", an EPIC Press series, a division of ABDO.