Greetings! Welcome to the space beyond the void!This is a collection of five original short stories, all set within the same science fiction universe. Taking place roughly three thousand years in the future, they are stories about humans struggling with themselves, with their histories, and with the galaxy they desperately try to control.

In this, the first volume, I feature five stories that set the stage for an expansive universe. The stories featured are called, in order:1) Exploration: In which an explorer is thrown off course while flying to a new planet and must find his way home.

2) Across the Fields: In which a father fights against nature to get back to his son. 3) Captain of the Salt Sailors: In which a girl from the civilized central planets takes a walk into a bar out on a border planet.

4) A Different Kind of Hero: In which a boy grapples with strength, duty, and morality as he grows up to be a soldier. 5) Symmetry, Perfected: In which an anthropologist studies a university of people who make sculptures out of molten sand.

Though humanity has undergone many changes since it left Earth, much of our struggles remain the same. People need resources to survive, resources which are often limited and dolled out unequally.

Governments often struggle to maintain order over the inherent chaos of life itself. Questions of what is right and wrong, of who get what, and what's important, those will always be important, and they will always be a part of the human experience.

These stories, while fantastical, are fundamentally about people, and our place within a universe we can never hope to fully understand. I hope you enjoy.

. .