AD ASTRA:: Beginnings
Book Details
Author(s)Ollie Bourque
PublisherPublish Green
ISBN / ASINB00IZLWDM4
ISBN-13978B00IZLWDM2
Sales Rank2,309,428
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
Jacob Riley lives in the year 2082, as a happy-go-lucky sort of ne'er-do-well who loves to drink and bet on the ponies. He is the last person anyone might suspect of becoming a hero and saving the entire human population from extinction. Nobody knows that he has no choice in the matter - that he's being controlled by nano-sized robots from the future. They have taken over his body, reading his thoughts, controlling his actions and speech. He is their slave.
These tiny visitors from the far future insist that in their histories, Jacob is indirectly responsible for the coming anihilation of the human race. They are here to prevent his actions and to save human civilization. They tell a grim tale of events that would happen if Jake is allowed to proceed, unhindered. They have the knowledge to prevent some future events but they seek to avoid detection by mysterious "Others" who might also be interfering with the timeline of human development. Jacob is sure that he is going crazy but the nanobots prove to him that they can predict future events. Jacob's every attempt at telling anybody what he has learned seems doomed to failure. How can he speak when his own lips betray him, speaking words that his mind did not form? How can he run away from it all if his muscles do not follow his intentions? How does a puppet escape its strings?
The Earth - on the eve of the 21st century - is overpopulated. Resources are getting scarce and prohibitively expensive. After half a century of failed attempts by others to mine the Solar System's asteroids, Stratos Corporation has come up with a bold plan. They have detected a large iron-nickel rich asteroid that they want to capture and return to Lunar orbit for processing. Jacob signs up for that mission and volunteers to pilot the 5.5 km long rock back from the far side of the Asteroid Belt. He is joined by eight other brave astronauts on his outbound journey, aboard the vessels: Stratos Sphere and Hera. The whole project is a worldwide media frenzy, from start to finish. Jacob is singled out as the noble hero - having been selected to save mankind from potential doom. They will not trust computers to fly the return mission. They need a human at the controls. He will be abandoned, alone, on the asteroid for many years. The people of Earth do not know about his hidden masters from the future who are coming along for the ride. Can he trust them? Can he stop them?
These tiny visitors from the far future insist that in their histories, Jacob is indirectly responsible for the coming anihilation of the human race. They are here to prevent his actions and to save human civilization. They tell a grim tale of events that would happen if Jake is allowed to proceed, unhindered. They have the knowledge to prevent some future events but they seek to avoid detection by mysterious "Others" who might also be interfering with the timeline of human development. Jacob is sure that he is going crazy but the nanobots prove to him that they can predict future events. Jacob's every attempt at telling anybody what he has learned seems doomed to failure. How can he speak when his own lips betray him, speaking words that his mind did not form? How can he run away from it all if his muscles do not follow his intentions? How does a puppet escape its strings?
The Earth - on the eve of the 21st century - is overpopulated. Resources are getting scarce and prohibitively expensive. After half a century of failed attempts by others to mine the Solar System's asteroids, Stratos Corporation has come up with a bold plan. They have detected a large iron-nickel rich asteroid that they want to capture and return to Lunar orbit for processing. Jacob signs up for that mission and volunteers to pilot the 5.5 km long rock back from the far side of the Asteroid Belt. He is joined by eight other brave astronauts on his outbound journey, aboard the vessels: Stratos Sphere and Hera. The whole project is a worldwide media frenzy, from start to finish. Jacob is singled out as the noble hero - having been selected to save mankind from potential doom. They will not trust computers to fly the return mission. They need a human at the controls. He will be abandoned, alone, on the asteroid for many years. The people of Earth do not know about his hidden masters from the future who are coming along for the ride. Can he trust them? Can he stop them?
