Preface (Robert Miller) February 5, 2198

Starting my second novel. First novel is less than 90 days from being published.

The future we knew has changed. Everything that was, is now new. With the change to introduce clean energy at a much earlier phase in human development, came a new world that has evolved to include such advances as interplanetary settlement and even interstellar travel.  We have colonies on the Moon and Mars as well as a recently new colony on the moon Europa. Exploration of the universe is reaching out to new discoveries never before possible.

At the heart of the ships that are interstellar capable, is the very power source we used to save the world from it’s own destruction. We have learned so much in the past 20 years that we would never have been able to explore before SH470 was introduced. Of course, with exploration comes risk.  The dangers of interstellar travel are still not 100% known.  With every advance we still find dangers that we could never have predicted.  Which invites potential problems that cannot be solved thru traditional means.  We all know that the dangers exist and despite the dangers, we have all accepted that the benefits of exploration outweigh the dangers.  We also have to accept that when something happens that was not expected, we may have to come up with unique solutions that were never before tried or even thought would be necessary.

William and Diane had settled into their new life and were raising their son.  Raising me to be the man I am today. Dolores and I have been planning to get married for a while. As is the case more often than not, we put it off for the good of the project.  Dolores has always believed the way I believe, that we don’t need the ring to solidify our relationship.  Perhaps that is true.  But, like my dad, I am a romantic at heart.  Marriage is the inevitable step that defines the relationship we have. 

The project was to explore a super dense black hole in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy.  We have a ship that was sent to the center of the galaxy for that purpose.  Dolores and I were responsible for making that project a reality.  Why you ask, is a historian involved in this project? Dolores is the scientist of course. I am involved because she is involved.  When we sent the ship, we had no idea of what would happen next. A distress signal, followed by silence warned us that there was a problem.  We were desperate for answers. Aboard that ship was the son of a Senator and of course the daughter of the now sitting President. The ship was also carrying the most advanced tracking system known to man and the most advanced weapons system ever created.   These are the most important aspects of this ship and simply put, we could not afford to lose either.  

When we got the distress call, we immediately planned a rescue mission.  However before the rescue mission would get underway, the ship distress signal stopped for no apparent reason and contact was lost.  Despite that we sent the rescue ship to ascertain the fate of the ‘Endeavour’.  The ‘Dinestra’ was a science vessel.  It’s Captain, Catherine Blakely was a very capable explorer.  She was not only the most qualified captain in the fleet of ships we had, she was also the only captain whose ship was in the quadrant of space where the ‘Endeavour’ was lost.  The ‘Endeavour’ was under the command of her long time friend Captain Michael Durant.  They both went to the academy together and of course were best friends for many years after that.  The relationship was purely friends.   Needless to say, she had a vested interest to find out the fate of her friend and his ship and crew.

Neither Dolores nor myself were in fact member’s of the ‘Endeavour’ crew.  We knew all of them by name though and counted them each as friends that we did not want to lose.  Of them was a young lieutenant, Michelle Weatherly, whom I went to school with many years back.  I had a crush on her in fact.  I of course got over that crush and the two of us remained good friends to this day. So the rescue mission held personal meaning for me as I knew that she was a very special and dear friend and would do the same for me if I had been lost.

Michelle was a particularly gifted historian.  She could easily run circles around me when it came to historical analysis.  Michelle was assigned to the crew of the ‘Endeavour’ because she had a gift for finding just about anything in the night sky. You could put her into the middle of the universe, and she could easily plot her way back to earth with minimal instrumentation. 

When the Dinestra was called into action, Dolores and I were brought on board primarily as observers.  It was our project of course, that brought the Endeavour to the center of the galaxy.  So we had every interest in knowing what happened to her. We were going to find them.  At all cost. These were our friends and family and nothing would stand in the way of bringing them home. Alive preferred, but at least bring home the bodies if there were no survivors.  We owed that to the families.