The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Ashby is the Wayfarer’s owner and captain. Like most Humans, he is descended from the Exodus Fleet and has the “tight black curls and amber skin [that are] the result of generations of mingling and mixing aboard the giant ships” (5). The Exodus Fleet was the armada of lifeboat ships launched by those left behind on the depleted Earth after the wealthy had abandoned them for Mars. After sailing beyond Earth’s planetary system in a desperate bid for survival, the fleet was detected by an Aeluon probe, and Humans made first contact with the GC. Because Humans destroyed their home planet and nearly drove themselves to extinction due to internal strife and violence, most Exodans, Ashby included, are pacifists.

Ashby and his crew have been engaged in low-level tunneling, establishing basic single-ship wormhole passages between GC systems, for several years. Ashby, who helps support his father and sister, hopes to upgrade the Wayfarer’s interspatial bore and take on bigger jobs one day. When the contract to punch the first tunnel to Hedra Ka becomes available, it is too good an opportunity to pass up despite his reservations about dealing with the barely known Toremi. When Ashby considers the possibility of returning to the fleet and starting a family there, he realizes that he considers the crew his family, and he is perfectly content with that.