Slow Boat

In the 23rdCentury...

Aldous Leonard is a "Dozener," an interstellar nomad, working passage on the city-sized ships that travel between the dozen Worlds of Man at close to the speed of light.

Aldous works on the SS Gu Tian, a Chinese star freighter, stretching his life into the future through time dilation and stasis in pursuit of his goal: to see the dozen inhabited star systems.

The Gu Tian carries much that the colonies need. Plants and animals. Technology and raw materials. But, most importantly, the "Marutas," the thousands of colonists in stasis who will awaken, decades later, on a new world.

Yet someone, or something, is harvesting the human cargo of the Gu Tian. And tensions between the Martian Republic and Great China threaten to erupt into an interstellar war.

Light years from any possible help, Aldous and his shipmates will confront an unknown force with insidious goals.

In this universe, we and our creations are the aliens, and the terror comes with us to the stars.