
Ralph and Diane Meeker are weary veterans of a doomed asteroid‑mining contract, now huddled in the cramped cockpit of the battered Gormann ’87 as they steer toward home. The couple’s marriage bears the weight of three hard years on a speck of rock in the belt, their conversation sparse but tinged with an unspoken longing for a fresh start. Their aging ship creaks under the strain of decades of service, its radar flickering like a nervous heartbeat as they chart a course through familiar debris.
When the radar finally blares, a glittering field of abandoned vessels materializes where only dust should be, the infamous Sargasso of Space looming ahead. Hundreds of silent ships drift together in an eerie, slow‑motion ballet, their presence turning the void into a graveyard of forgotten explorers. With thrusts unresponsive and gravity pulling them inward, Ralph and Diane must wrestle with failing systems and the unsettling mystery of the ghost‑fleet before they are swallowed whole.
Language
en
Duration
~27 minutes (26K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2010-04-25
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1928–2008
Best known for the globe-trotting private eye Chester Drum, this prolific American novelist also ranged far beyond crime fiction. He wrote science fiction, suspense, and vivid fictional lives of historical figures, building a career that stretched across several decades.
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