The Balthazar Experiment

Xavier Kind has only ever known control, having been born in the time after The Film. The Film, the street name for the device retrofitted to the eyes of every person born on planet Earth, which records and documents every second of their life… It was a government initiative to bring order to a world that had once fallen into chaos.

Despite always being watched, Xavier feels more alone than ever. Everyone he has ever loved has left him: his grandfather, his mother, his one-time HelperBot® LUCY. And he can't understand why. Alone in the world, Xavier believes his only recourse is disobedience.

Thirteen is Xavier's age. It is also the lucky number in the eyes of the law. After getting caught trying to steal a cherry-red GliderCar®, Xavier finds himself in the trouble of his lifetime. It is the thirteenth time he has been arrested. Thirteen crimes and the law blinds itself to age. Xavier is now viewed no differently than the most hardened criminals on the planet.

As he waits to be transported to a federal penitentiary where he will serve a fifteen-year sentence for habitually defying authority, a fellow detainee hints at a secret government experiment in the works…an experiment to rehabilitate all the young criminals on Earth. Only, this rehabilitation is taking place millions of miles away from Earth.

Ever the cynic, Xavier puts on his brave exterior and says he's ready for whatever. But when he is forced into a transport vehicle with dozens of other troubled children just like him, his exterior begins to crack and a lifetime of unresolved truths and stark realities are revealed for the first time. What Xavier doesn't know is that if can't come to terms with his issues, more than just his world will come to an end.