R. J. Weinkam

The vast bulk of science fiction ignores most physical laws to create often exciting and always imaginary tales, but what if the laws of science were largely maintained. What would that be like? In OUTWARD BORNE, a distant alien world embarks on the galaxy's first interstellar voyage, a millennia-long mission to discover and study intelligent beings in their quest to learn why so few technologically advanced civilizations survive.

Earth - An alien abduction occurs from a time and place lost to history. People and their dogs are taken. Their descendents survive for centuries within the Outward Voyager where they overcome a mission-threatening alien assault to gain the respect of the ObLaDas. A body-dissolving plague that has leapt the boundaries of evolution comes within moments of eliminating all life on the Outward Voyager. Shocked by their mortality, the ObLaDas vow to preserve the few advanced species they know to exist. A small number of reluctant humans are trained for their return to earth. Unknown even to himself, one has been given a dangerous, but powerful gift.

Adherence to physical, chemical, and biological principles has its own set of problems - How could you feed an alien if you had one? How could a populated space ship be supplied through a thousand year voyage? And would not Earth, with its rapidly advancing technologies, be a victim of the same forces that have torn apart so many of the galaxy's transient civilizations?