The gods are real, and they are AIs and they feed on our souls in return for their patronage. A scientist leads a reasearch team on a space station to further human-based science, and it ends in disaster, and than intrusion by something called The Outside, a kind of heresy thst threatens humanity and the gods. Kidnaped by angels and forced to hunt for the mentor who encouraged her research, she soon finds that the Outside has struck her home planet, with the only options to cure or destroy, and nobody really thinks there's a cure.