We are alone. Aren't we?
Earth: Population 5,000,000,000
The Universe: Population 5,000,000,000
It's a lonely place out there.
We are alone in the universe. We have faster than light travel. We've been looking for over 1,000 years, and there is simply nothing out there. The universe is a magnificent, but sterile, wilderness - and it all belongs to us. Maybe we should consider ourselves lucky.
That's the received wisdom, anyway. A new expedition, investigating a mysteriously aborted mission 27 years earlier, is about to turn that wisdom on its head.