Explorer Probe VI, a spacecraft launched by NASA in 1972, was designed to investigate the outer bodies of Neptune and the lesser dwarf Pluto. The probe was the flagship of the Explorer series. It was programmed with the latest artificial intelligence enabling it to survive on its voyage for many years in distant, cold interstellar space. This artificial intelligence was endowed with a capacity for being almost self-aware.
After the completion of its assignment, it was programmed to exit our solar system forever and to venture toward Proxima Centauri, our nearest star system some twenty-five trillion Earth miles away. There would be no further communication with NASA. Its file was closed.
One hundred and ninety-five years later, UASA, the successor of NASA--now located in Yaquina Head, Oregon--reported an unknown object entering our solar system, moving toward Earth. Weak transmissions from the object were directed to NASA. In time, the transmission code was traced to Explorer Probe VI. The probe was returning.
No one could understand how or why.
The story recounts events surrounding and contiguous with the mystery, including issues of first contact with another intelligence as envisioned it would most logically occur and questions about the universe that all of us ask. These are addressed and lived through by a host of unique, diverse, and captivating characters tasked with formidable obstacles and decisions. Dr. Jeromy Steiner and Dr. Roger Hadley, French Polish mathematician Dr. Caterina Frances Kostas, Dr. Kenji Takimoto, Mr. Smith, and the Society of Beings, together with people from all walks of life throughout the world, navigate their fears concerning these events and their own animosities and human passions.
