Space Science Fiction Anthology

The Space Mariners tells the story of two 16-year-old school-leavers dismissed as unemployable no-hopers who hang around a spaceport in an effort to obtain a job, only to find themselves embroiled in an adventure involving a disgraced captain of a gargantuan space-freighter that vanished under very mysterious circumstances, a planet-hopping vagrant stowaway, and an Irish double-crossing space pirate named Blood who has claimed an unknown paradisiacal world for his own.

On the basis of our suddenly accelerated rate of scientific progress your children's children may well live on another planet. An actual concept of such a life is difficult to get. For instance, can you conceive living in a world where the life or death of your child hinged on the capacity of a portable oxygen tank? The strength of a plastic helmet? A world where distance is not measured in miles but in buckets of liquid air? This is a story of such a world and of tomorrow's children.

When Jack becomes the captain on a trip to the center of the universe to investigate how the cosmos all started, it seems straightforward enough. But tensions rise among the team's lead scientist and engineer. Then suddenly, they become uncertain of whether they'll ever come back from their mission. This uncertainty may undermine the operation. But if they fail to find the answers they seek, the universe may cease to exist, along with humanity and all other life forms.