Kemper’s House by Frank Saverio

SPSFC 2024

What if the cost of first contact was leaving behind a world you’d never recognize upon return? On the heels of discovering interstellar travel, humanity has stumbled upon the first signs of intelligent life in another system. Captain Adrian Kemper is selected to lead the expedition to Kyra-2B in order to make first contact with the Kyrans. He departs a world struggling to deal with overpopulation, knowing that the realities of space travel will mean the Earth he eventually returns to will no longer be home. Even the stone cottage he loves may not remain. Despite this, Kemper accepts the mission. He leads an elite crew of optimistic scientists on a journey that will traverse hundreds of light years before reaching an alien world. What they find is truly unexpected.