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4.2 Light Years
In 2066, humanity launches its most ambitious mission: Starship Advance, bound for Proxima Centauri b — a planet orbiting the nearest star to our sun, just 4.2 light years away. On board: a crew of thirteen scientists, engineers, and explorers, alongside three thousand support personnel, all united by a single question — is there life beyond Earth?
What begins as a triumph of human ingenuity soon becomes something far more complex.
Deep in the void, an alien signal pulses from the darkness — deliberate, patterned, and unlike anything humanity has ever encountered. A humanoid AI begins to question its own existence. Crew members fall in love, start families, and forge bonds that will last a lifetime. And when the landing party finally sets foot on Proxima Centauri b, what they find will force them to make a decision that could change the fate of two worlds.
Back on Earth, civilisation is fracturing. America is collapsing under the weight of endless war and catastrophic debt. Britain has descended into surveillance, inequality, and the quiet erasure of its own freedoms. The crew of the Advance left a troubled planet — and they are returning to one that has changed beyond recognition.
But the greatest challenge isn't the distance, the danger, or even the alien unknown. It's the secret the crew brings home. A truth so extraordinary, so fragile, that revealing it could ignite a war across the stars — and so they bury it. Forever.
What begins as a triumph of human ingenuity soon becomes something far more complex.
Deep in the void, an alien signal pulses from the darkness — deliberate, patterned, and unlike anything humanity has ever encountered. A humanoid AI begins to question its own existence. Crew members fall in love, start families, and forge bonds that will last a lifetime. And when the landing party finally sets foot on Proxima Centauri b, what they find will force them to make a decision that could change the fate of two worlds.
Back on Earth, civilisation is fracturing. America is collapsing under the weight of endless war and catastrophic debt. Britain has descended into surveillance, inequality, and the quiet erasure of its own freedoms. The crew of the Advance left a troubled planet — and they are returning to one that has changed beyond recognition.
But the greatest challenge isn't the distance, the danger, or even the alien unknown. It's the secret the crew brings home. A truth so extraordinary, so fragile, that revealing it could ignite a war across the stars — and so they bury it. Forever.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/4-2-Light-Years-Journey-Beyond/dp/1918653127
