Voyagers (Bova)

Multi-Hugo Award-winning author Ben Bova continues the story of Earth's first extraterrestrial contact with Voyagers II: The Alien Within. Eighteen years ago, astronaut Keith Stoner had been the American member of a joint U.S.-Soviet mission to capture an alien ship that had entered the solar system. It was the greatest adventure in the history of Earth-but disaster struck when a bomb placed on the Soviet craft forced its recall. Stoner refused to return to Earth, staying behind in the strange ship alone where he fell into suspended animation. Jo Camerata, the ambitious young student who fell in love with Stoner, is now head of Vanguard Industries. Jo's dogged determination has forced the recovery of the alien ship, and now her company is in control of the vast new technology-and in control of Keith Stoner. What Camerata doesn't know, however, is that when Stoner wakes, someone else awakens, too. The alien presence in Stoner's mind that has kept him alive all these years is now free, and intends to explore the world. And, it will let nothing stand in its way.

Keith Stoner lay frozen in an alien spacecraft for fifteen long years; during that time, he came to be something more than just an astronaut, just a man. Stoner became partly alien himself, merged with an alien intelligence embodied in the nanotechnology that lived inside Stoner's body. The alien whose tomb that spacecraft was, brought humanity both a blessing and a deadly peril. The technology now the control of Vanguard Industries has changed the face of the earth. The technology that lives in Stoner's bloodstream will change mankind forever. There are powerful leaders, both corporate and political, who are becoming aware of Keith Stoner and the power he seems to control. They want that power for themselves, and will do anything to gain it. Nothing Stoner can say or do will convince these ruthless men and women that the power they seek may destroy them utterly.