Walking to Aldebaran

Chilling story of a lost astronaut on an alien artefact, struggling to find his way home even as the world around him transforms his body and mind.

I’m lost. I’m scared. And there’s something horrible in here.

My name is Gary Rendell. I’m an astronaut. When they asked me as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, “astronaut, please!” I dreamed astronaut, I worked astronaut, I studied astronaut.

I got lucky; when a probe exploring the Oort Cloud found a strange alien rock and an international team of scientists was put together to go and look at it, I made the draw.

I got even luckier. When disaster hit and our team was split up, scattered through the endless cold tunnels, I somehow survived.

Now I’m lost, and alone, and scared, and there’s something horrible in here.Lucky me.

Lucky, lucky, lucky.

A new standalone novella by the Arthur C Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the 10-book Shadows of the Apt series starting with Empire in Black and Gold published by Tor UK. His other works for Tor include standalone novels Guns of the Dawn and Children of Time which won the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke award. His other major works include short story collection Feast and Famine for Newcon Press and novellas The Bloody Deluge and Even in the Cannon's Mouth for Abaddon Books. He has been shortlisted for the David Gemmell Legend Award and The British Fantasy Award.