To The Stars. Future Chron, #5

To The StarsWith the help of new technology, the wormhole drive, humanity has attained the stars. But they wanted more, they wanted a second home. But while technology may extend humanity's reach, it cannot change the human condition. And that condition is always balanced perilously between progress and setback as these five novellas show. The first novelette, First One Hundred, is the story of the first mission to settle a planet similar to Earth.
But soon a crew member was dead, the captain was missing, and a rampaging AI threatened destruction. The second novelette, First Dark Ages, finds the Earth for the first time in over two-hundred years without the management of its overseers, the Aggies (Artificial General Intelligence). And the Earth's governments without that crutch are failing miserably. As the Earth recovers from the First Dark Ages the next novelette, Second One Hundred, finds a follow up mission to the First One Hundred mission launched.
But this new mission was in trouble almost from the start when one crew member wakes up to find she is the only conscious human on the ship. Or is she?The fourth novelette, Second Dark Ages, is more about the dark ages of the soul rather than a physical dark ages. As Ray is on a trek of discovery around his space habitat, he encounters the extremes of human thought and philosophy. The last novelette, The Path, shows the Trilons to be a peaceful, respectful race.
But something is killing them and the Rigan bureaucracy, who want to use the Trilons to help build their infrastructure, need an answer. The blossoming friendship between a Rigan and a Trilon may help find the answer, before a secret, hundreds of years old, is revealed. See the author's website for more information. Hard Science Fiction - Old School.