The restraints were tight against my chest almost to the point of restricting my breathing, but they were necessary. I flicked my way through banks of switches, checking the giant rocket over and over again. No-one had ever done this before; everything had been made redundant a frankly ridiculous number of times. Still, no sense in wasting all that redundancy by breaking one so early.

Through several of the hull cameras I could see Etheria station behind me, the last port of call, the furthest reach of civilisation in the void. Ahead there was nothing but darkness and night. This was going to be a long and lonely journey.

The navigation database was up and running, having already be primed for a course dagger-straight out into space, aimed at the edge of space and time itself. I’d have to go perilously close to light-speed to attempt to catch up with the boundary; nobody knew what would happen next.

I looked at the protein pills in my hand.

“Ground Control to Major Tom, Ground Control to Major Tom.”