Kharybdis

"Crew wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in event of success."With this famous and ancient call to adventurers, Commodore Sir Charles Graham seeks volunteers to crew the Imperial Trans-Galactic Core Expedition. Those flocking to the banner of the Empire include thrill seekers, lost souls, brilliant geniuses, heartless sociopaths, and a famous scientist who's fleeing tens of thousands of...
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"Crew wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in event of success."With this famous and ancient call to adventurers, Commodore Sir Charles Graham seeks volunteers to crew the Imperial Trans-Galactic Core Expedition. Those flocking to the banner of the Empire include thrill seekers, lost souls, brilliant geniuses, heartless sociopaths, and a famous scientist who's fleeing tens of thousands of light-years from the anguish of a catastrophic loss while desperately trying to bury the past under mountains of work and blank denial.The expedition seeks a passage through the vast, mysterious ocean at the heart of our galaxy, striving to connect the two halves of humanity's empire to secure a reliable supply of critical and extremely scarce raw materials to feed the ravenous Imperial shipyards. Waiting for them in this inconceivably vast terra incognita are not only fascinating mysteries and astounding discoveries, but also a hellish furnace of searing radiation and undiscovered dangers... and the Kharybdis Maelstrom, the cyclopean black heart of the Milky Way that holds the entire galaxy together by the sheer force of its limitless gravitational will. Their destiny is intertwined with the leviathan - they must find a way force a passage beyond the maelstrom to reach their goal and bridge the gulf between the realms of the Empire. As the people aboard risk everything in a quest for illumination far beyond the reaches of known space, the perils of the core will drive them all to the limits of human endurance and beyond. But of all shrouded dangers that await them, perhaps the most insidious slumber unseen and unsuspected deep in the shadows of the human soul...