Revelations

It's halfway through the twenty-first century. Contact with alien races was made forty years ago, but communication turns out to be impossible. We do not share a way of thinking or common sensory inputs with the aliens, let alone a grammar. However, there is trade, conducted by putting things on a table and taking them off again until agreement is reached. There is no obvious pattern to the trades. Alien anti-gravity technology was traded for a bicycle tyre.

Human science has become fixated on understanding alien technology, with little success. We can learn what it does and how to operate it, but we do not know how it works or how to fix it. While the world may be a better place, it is no longer our own. We may be colonising the stars, but we are reliant on inexplicable alien Faster-Than-Light technology. This is controlled by aliens we call the Gliese and is the only constant trade: FTL engines for human beings, any age or condition, as long as they're alive.

We do not know what happens to them, but rumour has it they are taken to a Nirvana where all illnesses will be healed. Their families are also very well compensated. Interstellar immigration and trade are central to the world's economy. There is no shortage of volunteers.

Revelations by Nigel Foster explores these themes, painting a vivid picture of a future where humanity grapples with its dependence on alien technology and the moral dilemmas that arise from this trade.