Wesley Smith has come to Vandereaux, the political heart of the ComNet Alliance, with two goals: to find the perfect Design Programming Partner... and to change the universe. Changing the universe? That’s the easy part. But there are those who like the universe just as it is... and they’ll stop at nothing to keep him from finding that partner.... 'NetWalkers: Partners is the exciting prequel to the critically acclaimed GroundTies. It is volume one of a duology first published as one volume entitled 'NetWalkers. The second volume of the duology is 'NetWalkers: Of Mentors and Mimetrons. More than a future history about an era when a universe-spanning computer controls the fate of humanity, it's a deeply human story about the people who control the fate of the computer.