Successful colonies among the stars require interstellar ships--but they require, also, a very special kind of man. A kind you might not think to look for....
Did you ever wonder what might happen if mankind ever exceeded the speed of light? Here is a profound story based on that thought--a story which may well forecast one of the problems to be encountered in space travel.
Upon arrival at Proxima Centauri, the Exodus-9 crew detects a mysterious object floating in space. They believe it is an alien threat and are panicked. What follows is a chain of absurd misunderstandings, extreme paranoia, and catastrophic decisions that almost spark an interplanetary conflict... against a piece of human junk. Only a stroke of luck prevents a thermonuclear conflict.
A story in the Warhammer 40K Universe
I originally wrote this back in October 2006 as the precursor to a series. Then I lost it. Now I have found it by chance via the internet wayback machine. The series was 'The Loyndl Incursion' and consisted of this, 'Arbitrary Arbites', 'Shopping with the girlfriend' three separate 'Tobias' stories and a couple of others.