Lost Cradle

Introduction

Picture credit: NASA, the crew of Apollo 11

Humankind has found the stars - and forgotten the coordinates of their home planet. Then Hana does the impossible and gets pregnant. Her mother's predictions ringing in her ears, she sets out to find humanity's lost cradle. She only has a myth to guide her and a young librarian, half human, half Shozien, to watch her back. Oh, and there's *Strawberry Mollusk*, a clapped-out cargo ship painted an impossible pink and ALI, the snotty on-board AI.

Even all taken together the gang isn't enough to survive a journey across a hostile galaxy filled with nasty surprises. As if that weren't enough, an alien secret agent is coming after them...

This novel is the result of the writing event The Writer's SciFi Relay held in September to November 2023. Twenty writers lent this story their voices and didn't shy away from the huge task of creating and writing a coherent story — together. 
The event was originally held on the ScienceFiction profile in 2023 and is now repeated here for your continued enjoyment. 

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Thanks to

angerbda - the spreadsheet magician

basketballdemon - the keeper of the great library

BrianMullin0 - the friend of the spiderlings

 crossingthevoid - the master of the maze

Elisabeth_Long - the guardian of the story arch

elveloy - the hunter of the pesky errors

EvelynHail - the Earth historian

jinnis - the twisted mind

johnnedwill - the technical expert

KADowd - the moral booster

lhansenauthor - the mother of the mighty swarm

M_A_Hartman - the mysterious one

Nyhterides - the fearless frontliner

 PeerGlen - the spirit of the forest

pixelmum - the relentless editor

RookWri78 - the creator of the butterfly collective

sleepingdraco - the custodian of the lava lamp

 theidiotmachine - the Galaxy Mercator

wdhenning - the saviour of the ark

Wuckster - the xeno-ethnographer

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Hey diddle diddle,

The Hiwjshi and the Human

The AI warped over the star

The Latrodecti laughed

To see such plork

And the droid ran away with the Ark.