How the hell did I get myself in this position. Whummp! Another shot blasting outside the hull. That one was damn close. If he’s got us bracketed, that’s it. We’re going to die in this fucking turd of a ship. Whummp! Damn it! As the shot exploded I felt my helmeted head whip backward, crashing hard against the back of the pilot seat. Despite the padding I could feel the knot rising. Groggy, everything came rushing back in a blur……

It had all started when Centaurus, Earth’s first interstellar probe, had confirmed that Earth-type planets orbited both Alpha and Beta Centauri. Even though it had taken forty-four years for the journey and the information to reach back home, it caused a stir as great as Armstrong’s first footsteps on the moon must have caused in 1969.

But the great problems were time and distance. Einstein had proven remarkably durable and it wasn’t until the development of relativistic drive and artificial hibernation that a manned mission could seriously be contemplated. The ships carrying settlers came next. The New Worlds beckoned. At last mankind had found something almost as exciting as war.

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