The Big Empty - Paperback

by Richard Quarry (Author)

In space, when accidents happen, they go exponential fast.

Faster than eyes and ears can keep up. Stick as many bells, whistles, and readouts into a suit as you like. You'll still die with your mind trying to play catch-up. Riggers, those EVA workers who build and maintain the space stations, call it "death by task saturation."

But suppose you could practice echo-location with the direct perception of a dolphin? Or smell chemical changes keenly as a dog, perceive magnetic fields like a shark, and detect heat changes with the infrared vision of a pit viper? Your chances of survival mount a hyperbolic curve. Now the scientists at L5 have developed brain implants from various animals to connect from the suit sensors directly to the human brain.

But back on Earth, an increasingly powerful evangelical movement insists that when God created man in His image, He sure didn't throw in any snakes or fish. They accuse the colony of trying to create a Godless "super-race."

Now war looms as Earth threatens to come up and remove the implants by force.

The Big Empty begins a journey of exploration into the question: what truly defines human? A thoughtful yet action-filled science fiction saga that weaves between Inner and Outer Space, near and far future, the series invites you to truly new frontiers.