Nobody asked Patrick White's permission to sign him onto the crew of a multi-generation ship to the stars. His parents were too busy with departure preparations to even think about such legal niceties. His older sister just didn't care about little brothers. By the time he came of legal age, Earth's Sol appeared as a remote and dim speck among thousands of similar stars.

Patrick's whole world revolved, literally, within a slim cylinder populated by the people he'd grown up with and that included everybody within light years. The voyage would take 50 years as measured by the revolution of a distant planet about a far star which few on board thought about any more.

With graying hair and a mature man's responsibility, he then left the comfortable confines of his home aboard ship and faced a wild planet using innate skills dimly remembered — like how to deal with mud. He also had a family and a whole colony to care for. Other than that, he felt like any other guy with a wife, kids and a job.