At the ends of space--triumph and deadly peril!
"They named her Southern Cross and launched her on the road whose end they would never see." In this superior novel of life and death in the farthest reaches of outer space, the reader is taken on a voyage which is at once an epic venture and a supreme testing of the human spirit.
Ten generations after the Southern Cross's take-off, successive crews are still being sent out to man it and the four who guide the ship to its final destiny are men we know well by the time we board it: the wealthy and intellectual physicist, Terangi Maclaren; the gentle pilot, Nakamura; Dave Ryerson, the timid son of a space-faring father; and the rebellious colonist, engineer Chang Sverdlov.
When the Southern Cross burns out its drive farther from Earth than man has ever ventured before, the lives of the four hang on the minute chance they can effect repairs in space. In their appalling aloneness they find that the need to resolve their clashing natures is as important as scientific knowledge and physical teamwork. It is soon evident that not all four can expect rescue. ...
