"Centaurus was the ultimate distination [sic] of the space ship 'The Hope of Man'. The journey had already taken twenty years, and still nine more years remained before Centaurus would be reached... But the passengers were becoming restless: mutiny was close. Captain Lesbee possessed certain information not available to anyone else on board--the Earth might very well have been obliterated by this time... So Centaurus was the only hope, and there could be no turning back at this point... This is only the beginning of a dramatic and fascinating interstellar voyage, where the greatest hazards are not the forces of an unknown scientific world, but man himself."--Pg. [4] of cover.