Introduction

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Picture credit: NASA, the crew of Apollo 11

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Picture credit: NASA, the crew of Apollo 11


Humankind has found the stars - and forgotten the coordinates of their home planet. Then Hana does the impossible and gets pregnant. Her mother's predictions ringing in her ears, she sets out to find humanity's lost cradle. She only has a myth to guide her and a young librarian, half human, half Shozien, to watch her back. Oh, and there's *Strawberry Mollusk*, a clapped-out cargo ship painted an impossible pink and ALI, the snotty on-board AI. 

Even all taken together the gang isn't enough to survive a journey across a hostile galaxy filled with nasty surprises. As if that weren't enough, an alien secret agent is coming after them...


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This novel is the result of the writing event The Writer's SciFi Relay held in September to November 2023. Twenty writers lent this story their voices and didn't shy away from the huge task of creating and writing a coherent story — together. 

Thanks to 

angerbda - the spreadsheet magician 

basketballdemon - the keeper of the great library

BrianMullin0 - the friend of the spiderlings

crossingthevoid - the master of the maze

Elisabeth_Long - the guardian of the story arch

elveloy - the hunter of the pesky errors

EvelynHail - the Earth historian 

jinnis - the twisted mind

johnnedwill - the technical expert

KADowd - the moral booster 

lhansenauthor - the mother of the mighty swarm

M_A_Hartman - the mysterious one

Nyhterides -  the fearless frontliner 

PeerGlenn - the spirit of the forest 

pixelmum - the relentless editor

RookWri78 - the creator of the butterfly collective 

sleepingdraco - the custodian of the lava lamp

theidiotmachine - the Galaxy Mercator 

wdhenning - the saviour of the ark

Wuckster - the xeno-ethnographer

Hey diddle diddle,

The Hiwjshi and the Human

The AI warped over the star

The Latrodecti laughed

To see such plork

And the droid ran away with the Ark.


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