This footnote in the annals of Merchanter/Union space describes the encounter of a small Family ship with an ancient alien vessel. The human crew become involved unwittingly in an internal power struggle between the alien crew. Then some of the humans find that they are not what they were. This is a remarkable study of the interaction of human psychology with machine psychology, and particularly of how alien the combination can be.
Rafe Murray, his sister Jillian, and Jillian's husband Paul Gaines, like many other out-of-luck spacers, had come to newly-built Endeavor Station to find their future. Their tiny ship, Lindy, had been salvaged from the junk heap, and fitted to mine ore from the mineral-rich rings which circled Endeavor. But their future proved to be far stranger than any of them imagined, when a "collision" with a huge alien vessel provided them with the oddest first contact experience possible!
Description:
This footnote in the annals of Merchanter/Union space describes the encounter of a small Family ship with an ancient alien vessel. The human crew become involved unwittingly in an internal power struggle between the alien crew. Then some of the humans find that they are not what they were. This is a remarkable study of the interaction of human psychology with machine psychology, and particularly of how alien the combination can be.
Rafe Murray, his sister Jillian, and Jillian's husband Paul Gaines, like many other out-of-luck spacers, had come to newly-built Endeavor Station to find their future. Their tiny ship, Lindy, had been salvaged from the junk heap, and fitted to mine ore from the mineral-rich rings which circled Endeavor. But their future proved to be far stranger than any of them imagined, when a "collision" with a huge alien vessel provided them with the oddest first contact experience possible!