Voyage to the Edge of Everything (And Also a Chicken)
Captain Horatio Brightly of the starship Indefatigable has been handed the most important page in the galaxy: a one-page peace treaty that must be signed at the Edge of Everything before the Grand Moon sets on Thursday. Nobody has ever been to the Edge of Everything. Everyone else is at a conference.
It is a very serious story. Mortimer reads it as the Captain's Log, in the first person, with his chin up. There is a jelly ambassador in it, and a spiky empress who shouts because her throne room is very big, and a rival with excellent hair. There is also Ensign Pecks, a hen in a fishbowl helmet, who is the only one on board who knows what she is doing.
The crew
Captain Horatio BrightlyEnormous chin. Four hundred speeches. Brave about twice
Ensign PecksA hen. Calm, sensible, has never taken a side
Commander Juniper VanceFirst officer. Has read the rulebook four times for fun
Chief GasketEngineer. Says she will hold. Hopes so
Ambassador GlubA polite green jelly in a very small top hat
Empress VexaliaSpiky, loud and extremely tired
Commodore Lance StrattonOn nobody's side but his own
Mortimer QuillYour narrator, in a helmet, indoors
Nine chapters
- Captain's Log, Stardate Thursday
- Gloop Station
- The Asteroid Belt of Mild Peril
- Ambassador Glub
- The Nebula of Honest Feelings
- Empress Vexalia
- Stratton Takes the Treaty
- The Edge of Everything
- The Neutral Party
Fifty-four pages and four endings. Book Three adds a new card, Reverse the Polarity, which flips a word to its opposite. On becomes off, in becomes out, and the page has to cope. Your Bookmarks go on your Service Record, where they earn Cadet, Commander and Admiral of the Fleet across every game you play, and the odder things you do earn Service Ribbons.
Like the other books, it was written by hand. When your edits take a page somewhere new, an AI language model helps Mortimer write that version up, and he keeps it for the next reader.
Mortimer, reading the Captain's Log"Space is very big, and I am very nervous."