The Uncounted

A wrong date. A reassuring answer. A child who will grow old enough to ask again. Alia Lesson knows how to help a frightened child find his place. When Eli's mother brings her an enrollment record with the wrong birth date, checking it seems a small kindness. The answer leads toward a family loss nobody wants to explain. Alia chooses to make the school record look settled. Eli learns to trust her assurance. Aboard The Seeker, work is inherited and a person's recorded history follows him from classroom to training bench. As Eli grows into a skilled young man, the old discrepancy begins to shape questions his parents and teacher can no longer answer for him. His sister has a life beyond protecting him. Alia has children of her own, a marriage and a reputation built on being useful. Telling the truth will mean admitting who chose silence, who relied on it and who has been made to carry its consequences. Correcting a record may be possible. Restoring trust will require more than a clean page. Spanning thirty years aboard a tightly ordered generation ship, The Uncounted is the fourth novel in The Seeker Inheritance: a story of family secrecy, professional responsibility and the right to a life that is one's own.