A seventy-five-year generational spaceship is sent across the stars to establish Earth's first off-world colony. The passengers are born, live, and die aboard a vessel that will never see home again. Will they reach their destination? And if they do - what will be waiting for them?As the story unfolds in reverse timeline, the lives of the ship's generations reveal a deeper truth behind the mission.
Political ambitions, hidden assumptions, and desperate choices shape a journey where many will never see the world they were sent to colonize. Those who hope to build a new future have never walked on Earth. They know their home only as corridors and machinery, stories and memories handed down from the first crew. Expedition of the Arcturus is a thoughtful work of hard science fiction exploring survival, legacy, and the choices that define humanity's future among the stars.
First published in the hard science fiction magazine Perihelion.
A seventy-five-year generational spaceship is sent across the stars to establish Earth's first off-world colony. The passengers are born, live, and die aboard a vessel that will never see home again. Will they reach their destination? And if they do - what will be waiting for them?As the story unfolds in reverse timeline, the lives of the ship's generations reveal a deeper truth behind the mission.
Political ambitions, hidden assumptions, and desperate choices shape a journey where many will never see the world they were sent to colonize. Those who hope to build a new future have never walked on Earth. They know their home only as corridors and machinery, stories and memories handed down from the first crew. Expedition of the Arcturus is a thoughtful work of hard science fiction exploring survival, legacy, and the choices that define humanity's future among the stars.
First published in the hard science fiction magazine Perihelion.