We reached the stars but they didn't want us! It is the twenty fourth century and mankind has finally achieved the dream and travelled to the stars. Unfortunately when he got there, it was to find that the stars were already filled with advanced alien races, and that humanity would have to earn their place in the Interstellar Community through a probationary period. But worse was to follow, as that normal probation of fifty standard years, became over a hundred in mankind's case, for no known reason. And there is no end in sight. In this dark time for mankind, Dr. Daryl Chalmers, a xeno-archaeologist working alone on a dead alien world, is co-opted by a scientific expedition sponsored by the Interstellar Community to take part in one of the greatest xeno-archaeological quests ever attempted. They intend to back track the exodus of the Calderonians from the local sector of the galaxy, ten thousand years earlier. This in the hope that their journey will in turn will lead them to the almost mythical race known only as the ancients. This will be the expedition of a lifetime. But trapped for at least a year on a military ship, surrounded by aliens that detest him, given the task of breaking into ancient cities filled with deadly defences, and likely unable to return home, Daryl knew it would not be easy. And that was before they threw him in the brig, before the attempts on his life, and before he discovered a race of human beings living in the Community. It was also before he accidentally triggered an interstellar war.
About the Author: Greg Curtis was born in New Zealand, land of the long white cloud and small flightless birds. He grew up in the city of Wellington, renown for its high winds and the almost magical ability of rain and sleet to be lifted off the street and blasted into one's face. After eighteen years of suffering the cold and wet, he was finally blown away in a particularly bad storm to settle far away as a student, for more years then most would ever admit to. Then finally when the universities pronounced him done he became an overqualified and underpaid worker in the health sector, (aren't we all). He has lived in the city of Rotorua, one of the very few places in the world where people have actually chosen to reside beside active geysers and breath air that reeks of sulphur, for the past fifteen years. He works by day for his daily bread by speaking to people about their various diarrhoeal illnesses. While at night he toils away on his books. When not engaged in his great passions of reading and writing science fiction and fantasy, drinking strong black coffee (some call it tar), and consuming copious amounts of chocolate (dark naturally), he lives a quiet life of contemplation as the high priest to his two cats. His duties include worshipping them with regular gifts of food, the occasional grooming and providing them with a warm dry place to sleep. They in turn look down upon him with typical feline disdain, but occasionally deign to bring him gifts of headless vermin, - as a warning. In a desperate bid to understand the meaning of his life, he has recently started studying philosophy, particularly metaphysics, and come to a startling conclusion. God is a cat!