Takeshi and his sister Reileen (Dichen Lachman) are born on an off-world colony called Harlan's World, to an Eastern-European father and a Japanese mother. The siblings' father is extremely violent and abusive, especially toward their mother. He kills their mother, and Takeshi — only a boy at the time – retaliates by killing his father. Afterward, Takeshi is drafted to become an Envoy for the U.N. Protectorate, which governs Earth and its colonies. Essentially, Envoys are an elite group of soldiers who can needlecast (or project their minds into sleeves, or bodies) repeatedly, without experiencing mental deterioration.