The Integral Trees: A Novel-Fast Shipping

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“Niven has come up with an idea about as far out as one can get. . . . This is certainlyclassic science fiction—the idea is truly the hero.”—
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine

When leaving Earth, the crew of the spaceship Discipline was prepared for a routineassignment. Dispatched by the all-powerful State on a mission of interstellar explorationand colonization, Discipline was aided (and secretly spied upon) by Sharls DavisKendy, an emotionless computer intelligence programmed to monitor the loyalty andobedience of the crew. But what they weren’t prepared for was the smoke ring–an immensegaseous envelope that had formed around a neutron star directly in their path. TheSmoke Ring was home to a variety of plant and animal life-forms evolved to thrivein conditions of continual free-fall. When Discipline encountered it, something wentwrong. The crew abandoned ship and fled to the unlikely space oasis.

Five hundredyears later, the descendants of the Discipline crew living on the Smoke Ring no longerremember their origins. Earth is more myth than memory, and no recollection of theState remains. But Kendy remembers. And just outside the Smoke Ring, Discipline waitspatiently to make contact with its wayward children.