The Dampier

by Bill Stokes

In the year 2257, Fleet Command issued orders for the TSS Dampier to undertake a decade-long journey to the outermost edges of the solar system to explore and map the dark matter fields lying there. Captain Xoxi Xiang was placed in command of a crew that included a genetically modified navigator, Jean-Paul Fourier, capable of perceiving gravitational gradients. Captain Xiang herself had undergone similar genetic engineering as a very young child, however, in her case, it failed and left her mute but telepathic. For the multilingual crew of the Dampier, this voyage was an opportunity for a glorious adventure taking them farther than any previous mission. And for some, it also provided an escape from the rules and politics of Fleet Command.

Soon after leaving Ganymede, they receive new orders to examine an anomaly beyond the Kuiper Belt in the direction of Sirius, and determine whether it represents a threat to Earth. What they find opens a route to stars and planets hundreds of light years from Earth. The question is whether they will ever be able to find their way home again.

449 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2019

About the author

Born in Barron, Wisconsin, on September 11, 1931, Bill Stokes grew up on a small dairy farm between Barron and Rice Lake. He began his official writing career as an outdoor writer and general reporter for the Stevens Point Daily Journal, where he served as columnist, reporter and outdoor writer. In 1961 he moved to the Wisconsin State Journal, in Madison, where he wrote outdoor and personal columns, some of which were collected in a book "Ship The Kids On Ahead." (added by Bill Stokes). In 1969, the Milwaukee Journal became his venue and as a feature writer and columnist, and he found new ground to cover in 1982 at the Chicago Tribune. After 11 years there, Bill retired to pursue free-lance projects.

During his long journalism career, Bill won many conservation awards, including the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award from Scripps-Howard News Service in 1972. His work has appeared in many national publications, among them Readers Digest, Outdoor Life and Sports Afield. He has compiled three anthologies of his newspaper writing and authored two children's books.

Bill has lived on Madison's west side since 1959, a home he shares with his wife, Betty. They have a 45-acre "back 40" on a trout stream near Westfield, where Bill engages in his hobbies of trout fishing, photography, bicycling and grandfathering. They have five grown children and 12 grandchildren. Bill and Betty also enjoy traveling.