Ascension

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Our navigator is dead.

We’re stranded halfway between Earth and Elypso, the location of our new colony.

Chimera, the AI that makes faster-than-light travel possible, has rejected all our backup navigators. No one expected that, least of all me, because I’m a Navigator’s Assistant, and the primary backup.

Something is very wrong with the Chimera, and if I don’t figure out what, the 40,000 colonists on this ship will die—including the woman I love.

The corporate minders sent along to keep the colonists in line have started to lose control. Social order is breaking down, and things are only going to get worse each day we sit in empty space, unable to move forward. It’s chaos here. And lurking in the back of my mind at all times is the truth that I now know: our navigator didn’t just die. She was killed. And I have a feeling I know who was responsible.

But I don’t have time for distractions. Chimera has asked me to find her a replacement navigator, and I have to test each and every person on the ship for the capacity to sync with Chimera’s artificial mind. My only hope is to find someone capable of bringing us to Elypso.

But that person may not exist, and even if they do, Chimera might be irreparably broken.
There’s a dark, corrupting presence on this ship--one I’m all too familiar with—and one I don’t know that I can overcome. To save my ship, my family, and ultimately myself, I’m going to have to try. Even if it costs me everything, including my sanity.

AUTHOR NOTE:

Ascension is a prequel to Chimera, the award-winning first novel in the Universe Eventual series. That said, it is also a fully-developed standalone novel that can be enjoyed regardless of the reader’s familiarity with the rest of the Universe Eventual series.

Ascension tells the story of Chimera’s harrowing journey from Earth, some 200 years before the events of Chimera, Helios, and Ceres. Told in first-person from the perspective of Selena Samuelson’s great, great grandfather, Ascension, can be read before Chimera and will provide interesting context for the remainder of the series.

Editors: Jennifer Severino & Crystal Watanabe