Three ships. Three journeys. Divergent destinies.

One imperative: adapt, or die.

Testament
​Prequel novella. Launch sequence.
Three genetically modified humans travel to a space station on the L5 Lagrange point, only to discover that they're 'reason' for existence is to be merged as the consciousness of generational interstellar ships.
The married couple of scientists working with Professor Roark are the source for the Children of Theseus clones.

The Dark Backward
The Unity of Time takes up a stable orbit around a planet that has a complex biosphere suitable for humanity. The intrusion triggers a planetary 'antibody' response that destroys the ship. All except one survivor of the exploration team are killed. Components of humanity absorbed into a planetary organism and become a catalyst for change and adaptation. The Unity is rebuilt as a hybrid 'seed' ship.

Children of Theseus
The Mind of Ship Two (reference Theseus) wakes a cloned pair over and over again, searching for the meaning of what it is to be human, in order to know when to let them leave its care, but in reality, it has no intention of ever letting them or its cargo of sleeping humans free. Many generations of clones pass and the Ship's mind understands that its motivations are far darker than it had allowed for. 

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Chasing Giants
A new home for humans is found, but it is occupied by the Ganntich, descendents of an enslaved predatory species, now an advanced civilisation trapped on this world.
  
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Isaac Newton

At home, in the House of Stars
The ship and its crew have become one organism. Humans are now 'protean' beings, able to shapeshift and adapt to the diversity of worlds available to them.
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They become seeds, cast out into the cosmos. Are they still human? What defines them?

Inheritance
The return to Earth. A family of Ganntich archaeologists and human historian philosophers rediscover the Testament, leading them back along the paths taken by the Testament Arks to Earth, where they find an ancient AI and a verdant world that has not forgotten, or forgiven, humanity's legacy.

Old school space opera cocktail: humanity on the rocks with a splash of hope.