1 books
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1. Beyond Light
2543. Technology has peaked. Super colonies and other advanced inventions around the Solar System that were once speculations are now a fully-fledged reality. From the gas refineries of Titan, passing through the terraformed Ganymede and Callisto, to the floating cities of Jupiter and Saturn, humans have already conquered most worlds in the solar system. But the technology that would mark a new era in human history is about to arrive. Scientists from the Independent Nations Space Union (INSU) have produced the final prototype of the Engine of Post-Accelerating Leaps (EPAL), which promises to make faster-than-light travels a reality. The Eternity of Return —the most advanced spaceship ever built, a seven-kilometer long war dreadnought— successfully makes a Post-Accelerating Leap, and his crew leaves their mark on history as the first humans to have traveled to an extrasolar system. But things go wrong as they meet unidentified vectors. Connections and contact with the Eternity of Return are lost, and chaos runs through the high command and personnel involved in the project. In fear that the People's Federation of Sociocratic Republics (PFSR) got ahead with their patent of EPAL and prepared an ambush on the other side, an emergency conflict resolution assembly is formed between both entities. An agreement is reached. Both entities collaborate in a secret project with the finality of traveling to the dreadnought's destination and finding out what happened. John Star, a decorated 28 years old lieutenant commander, is one day given a life-changing offer on his military career. He is selected to command a simple, high-risk operation: To travel more than 8000 light-years away and find out what happened to the Eternity of Return. With a crew of some of the most eccentric personalities of the system, as well as a high-tech stealth ship —one of the most ambitious projects of aeronautics ever seen, designated as project: BLACKCAT— John makes a macabre discovery once on the other side... A discovery that puts humanity between the edge of survival and annihilation, all in a strange world of eccentric geography never explored before...