The Sticks
Book Two of the New Moon Trilogy
Prologue
Yes, it has occurred to me that I may be wrong. Many before me have devoted their life’s work to it. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Yet, no one has ever brought back incontrovertible proof. Oh sure, there are those who say that they know the answer, that they have had the experience. That they know the truth. And yet . . . it remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of all time.
What if? What if there was a way there and back? Would we then know the answer? Then, would people believe? Would we finally be able to become one? Not a squabbling band of primitives, but one fully united people?
I think about these things a lot. I have dreams. Visions. I do! Call me a mad man. Perhaps its true. Perhaps, I’m just another one of the hundreds of thousands.
But . . . perhaps I’m not.
– Journal entry September 21, 2186 Art Baker
“The Sticks” takes place about 150 years in the future. Captain Baker lives in a hermetically sealed city, isolated from the toxic environment outside its walls. He has been given a manuscript, written by his brother before he died. His brother’s last words were “Look for me.” Baker decides to do just that.