Beyond (The Egan Universe Book 3)

Even Guardians get bored.

It took me a century and two hundred million deaths, but eventually the effort of shepherding in a gilded age of rationality and egalitarianism became too much and I shucked my responsibilities, considering that my obligations to humanity were discharged. Surfing the wave of expansion, I crewed on Litmus Test, the most successful of the interstellar exploration ships hunting out new worlds to exploit, settling in for what I considered my retirement from dictatorship: a routine mission to another solar system.

The universe, it seems, wasn’t having that, and with Litmus Test impossibly plucked mid-wormhole and dumped nowhere near our intended destination, even my unwavering confidence was challenged. With crew dynamics fracturing, the ship damaged, supplies running low, and an unknown enemy threatening our survival, our only hope was to solve some truly inexplicable physics and find a way home.

It seemed insurmountable, and most of the crew thought it was. Me included, to be honest, but Guardians are built resilient, and with little to lose, I devised a plan. To call it insane would be generous, and as it came together, I could not help but notice that it mirrored the paranoia that had driven the Director over a century before.

Destiny or insane fantasy, I couldn’t decide. All I could do was follow the plan and hope that it worked. Because if it didn’t, our death was certain. And it would not be pretty.