The Epsilon Eridani Alternative

Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-935460-13-8 or ISBN-10: 1-935460-13-7

eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-935460-19-0 or ISBN-10: 1-935460-19-6

A November, 2009 release from Virtual Tales.

What would you do if confronted with a kill or be-killed scenario? What if you had to kill an infant? Of an alien species? And what if the future of the human race depended on your decision? The Epsilon Eridani Alternative explores a timely ethical issue--the use of stem cells for medical research--but with a futuristic twist. Space colonists from Earth crash-land on a planet orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani and immediately wrestle with an ethical dilemma. They emerge from their stasis pods 33 years older than when they started and must decide whether or not to harvest stem cells from alien infants to counteract the effects of human aging... even though the process will kill the infants.

As factions develop among the astronauts, the scientists race ahead with experiments to restore their youthful vigor, and must face the unexpected consequences of their choices.

The Epsilon Eridani Alternative earned an honorable mention in the 2003 science fiction novella contest run by the Technical University of Catalonia, Spain--the only U.S. entry to make it into the top ten out of 120 entries.