
Peter Conroy has never known anything but the humming corridors and endless farms of the massive generation ship that has been drifting toward Procyon for half a century. Raised in the agronomy decks, he knows every stalk of corn and every irrigation tube like the back of his hand—a knowledge that becomes his only chance to slip past a squad of security officers led by the ambitious Bayliss Kent. When Kent’s faction decides the ship should turn back to Earth, they hunt Conroy, hoping to use—or silence—him before he can influence the navigation crew.
The story follows Conroy’s desperate crawl through a hidden cornfield and a dark, vertical pipe, a tense game of cat‑and‑mouse played among the ship’s own lifelines. As he strives to stay one step ahead, listeners get a vivid sense of life aboard a self‑contained, moving world and the fragile hope that a new generation holds for a distant, habitable star.
Language
en
Duration
~20 minutes (19K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2021-04-21
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

b. 1935
A giant of modern science fiction, this prolific writer helped shape the field with a career spanning many decades, from pulp-era magazine stories to award-winning novels. His work is known for big ideas, psychological depth, and an impressive range across science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction.
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