Anu Factor

by Ross Richdale

An asteroid is hurtling through interstellar space, a damaged asteroid calved out to create the intergalactic cruiser Foundation III to fly at post light speeds through the universe. It was damaged by terrorists from its dying home world just before it entered infinity drive and now has no crew, only computers, three humans and Anu. Anu is possibly the last Blue, an advanced humanoid race. She must be protected so the genes of her species are passed onto future generations. The computers aboard create an environment for Anu and the humans, Talbot, Erin and Matt. It is an hallucinatory world so the four aboard don't realise they are alone and it works well. This is until a minor accident causes Talbot to find out that his real existence is a deserted derelict city. He finds Anu, convinces her the world they live in is false and together they search for the truth. They find Erin, a human girl alone and pregnant, a road system that goes nowhere and discover they are not even on a planet but inside one. And where is the man who impregnated Erin? This man is Matt, alone and lost in another section of the asteroid. How do Anu, Talbot and Erin find him? How does the damaged environment hinder their search? How do the last inhabitants in a damaged intergalactic cruiser fight the odds, where are they heading and what of the world they left behind? It was a violent world finally destroyed by intercontinental wars with inhabitants who could never come to peace, The Believers were a fanatical religious race, the Seculars had no religious beliefs what-so-ever and the moderate Blues were outnumbered and hated by both the other inhabitants on the planet Crysum. In one of the few agreements between thespecies Crysum is evacuated in three asteroids, one for each ideology when the planet dies. Anu and her three human friends have to survive and find a new home. But the Believers and Seculars are out there, somewhere and heading in the same direction ... towards planet Earth.

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First published February 18, 2004