Founder's Children

It is 16,000 BCE: Celet, a lone AI android from an ancient race of aliens discovers that the primitive humans of Earth will someday bring their world to destruction. She makes a fateful choice and leaves a cryptic message of warning to those in the far future, creating a thread of hope.

Fast forward to 2264 CE: the launch of the Lodestar, Earth's first interstellar ship, aborts due to an engine fire. Evidence of sabotage exposes a deep rift between humans and their AI creations. But then, Celet's message is discovered, causing mass hysteria and a change in the ship's mission that will rewrite mankind's future.

As Earth's climate worsens, the crumbling Space Agency rechristens the ship "The Founder" and appoints Trent, a resourceful AI droid in the office staff, as mission Commander. Carrying the last remnants of humanity on board, The Founder begins a treacherous, 200-year crossing through deep space to a hopefully habitable planet.

But a sleeper saboteur, scarred by the trauma of past World Wars, is also aboard, determined to doom humanity for its past crimes. The novel asks questions about the nature of consciousness, the effects of technology on society, what it means to deserve a future, and who gets to decide.