The Wrong Stars by Tim Pratt - Sample Chapters 1-2

come through a bridge. The data must be bad, then. It’s just an old computer system, barfing up nonsense.”

“Seems likely. I mean, there is something weird happening with the propulsion system, so I guess it’s possible a bunch of frozen scientists from five centuries ago cracked faster-than-light travel because they were bored on their trip, but like the ancients said: if you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.”

“Both are equally improbable in Trans-Neptunian space,” Callie pointed out.

“I’ll alert the aphorism police and demand a more appropriate cliché right away.”

“Did you find any data on the crew?”

“Some, but it’s partial and corrupted. Big chunks of the computer’s memory got overwritten with either garbage data or something with crazy levels of encryption, and the latter seems unlikely. Probably just a systems failure and a botched backup, if I had to guess. I found some medical records that seemed intact, though. I sent it all over to the ship so Shall can try to make sense of it. Can I please go poke around the control room now? And maybe do an EVA to check out the crap welded all over this little ship’s rear end?”

“Go ahead. Just be careful. Try not to blow up… everything.”

“I doubt there are any atomic bombs left on this thing.”