Copious is the planned destination of the first attempted human expedition beyond the solar system. It lies just under thirty-five light-years from Earth, orbiting an orange K-dwarf star.
Names, outcomes, and discoveries from later histories are concealed in spoiler-light mode.
Settlement plan
Formidable and Echo carry approximately two thousand people toward Copious on a voyage expected to last nearly fifty years. Its oxygen-rich atmosphere prompts James Kirfder to hope for microbial life, but this is unconfirmed. The colonists plan to print seeds and animal embryos to establish Earth life across the largely brown landscape.[1][3]
Abandoned approach
The sphere-drive accident ends the expedition's approach. Echo turns back toward Earth, while Formidable's eventual destination remains unknown.[2]
The dreamlike visit
Eastcott saw an orange sun, a turquoise ocean with green patches, black beaches, red moss, dark mountains, and brown balloonlike creatures tethered to the sea by eight appendages. Serilda insisted that their minds were at Copious rather than inside her imagination. The experience included the hand Eastcott had lost physically.[6]
Open questions
The visit contradicted the Science Commission's account. Serilda said she had been travelling among worlds during her apparent coma, but the precise mechanism and independent physical verification of the visit were not established.[6][7]
Related records
Sources
Simon Evans, The Flaxen Tyranny, first edition (2023). Page numbers refer to the printed pagination of the source edition.
- Chapter 2 · pp. 7–11
- Chapter 3 · pp. 22
- Chapter 4 · pp. 24
- Chapter 14 · pp. 101
- Chapter 29 · pp. 235
- Chapter 35 · pp. 285–287
- Chapter 39 · pp. 334