The Wanderer

The series begins when Pete and Tom, two former Marines seeking quiet after their service, stumble upon a massive, buried artifact in the remote Colorado Rockies. This discovery is revealed to be the Stellar Wanderer, an ancient, bio-synthetic starship piloted by the Adaptive Unified Reactive Algorithm (AURA)—the last functional remnant of the highly advanced Astraean civilization. Forced into an impossible choice after a tense standoff with the United States military, Pete and Tom activate the ship and narrowly escape Earth's atmosphere, taking the Stellar Wanderer and its immense archive of cosmic knowledge out of reach of those who would weaponize it. The books follow Pete and Tom as they transition from ordinary men to the unwilling custodians of a vast interstellar legacy. Guided by AURA, they must navigate the dual challenges of learning to operate the most advanced piece of technology ever encountered and grappling with the weight of intergalactic responsibility. Their journey is one of choice: whether to return to a world that may destroy them, or to traverse the endless void, seeking answers to the Astraeans' collapse and ensuring humanity does not follow the same path. The saga is a thrilling blend of military pragmatism, boundless exploration, and the philosophical exploration of progress versus preservation.-----