Book excerpt: Kim’s mission to the other Antares planet – the one from which came the mysterious beam that took her daughter – is underway, and the young woman desperately wants to believe she will find her missing child. One amongst her team has no shortage of faith, though: the insufferable Jedediah Thornton is convinced they are going to meet an advanced alien civilisation. And he will stop at nothing to ensure humanity’s representative is a man of proper morals...