The Principles of Posterity — Grant Gregory

The last remnants of the human race survive aboard the spaceship Phoenix, docked just off the planet Saturn, having fled Earth and the nuclear apocalypse almost a century ago. The Elite Council, the owners and rulers of the spaceship, have created a set of morality lessons, the Id to Ego Games (IEGs), in which each Citizen aboard Phoenix must participate, so that mankind can learn to live properly within its own ambitions, instincts, and knowledge. Every aspect of life aboard Phoenix is dedicated to preparing for and performing in the IEGs, from building colossal arenas, such as one replicating an early twenty-first-century city filled with skyscrapers, to guiding C-Fabs (clones) through these arenas during the games.

Eleanor Bigsby and her team represent the epitome of intellectual freedom and moral integrity the IEGs are intended to foster. The four team members are the only people to have completed three stages of games over their lifetime aboard the spaceship, with each IEG being more complex and having higher stakes than its predecessor. They are now prepared to perform in their final games.

However, where no previous stage of the IEGs ever required (or allowed) the taking of a life, Eleanor's team must direct four primary C-Fabs through four different Protocols in which lives are sacrificed in order to fully understand the human condition. They soon learn destiny's cost, and the ultimate value of the clones' lives they use as morality's currency.