Five and a Quarter: Hard Science Fiction

by Brandon Q. Morris

What if you deleted the source code of your own life?

In 2040, digital archivist John receives a strange assignment from his he has to read the contents of an ancient floppy disk and then destroy it immediately.

Meanwhile, astronaut Max is busy cleaning up the ISS space station in Earth's orbit—tech archaeologists want to finally dismantle the station and bring it to a museum in Texas.

When John can't resist his curiosity, he turns his and Max's life upside down. At the same time, however, he needs the astronaut to have even the slightest chance of undoing his terrible mistake.

Every wrong decision he makes could wipe out not only Max, but also the future of the woman he loves. Are Max and John facing a real choice, or are they just pawns in a game whose rules were set before they were born?

A novel for fans of Blake Crouch and Ernest a fast-paced chase through space and time that combines the heart of Arrival with the horror of Black Mirror.

A must if you loved games on your home computer.

400 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 30, 2025

About the author

Brandon Q. Morris is a physicist and space specialist. He has long been concerned with space issues, both professionally and privately and while he wanted to become an astronaut, he had to stay on Earth for a variety of reasons. He is particularly fascinated by the "what if” and through his books he aims to share compelling hard science fiction stories that could actually happen, and someday may happen. Morris is the author of several best-selling science fiction novels.