Line of Descent

A Kidnapping on a Generation Ship

Adam Oyebanji's Line of Descent turns a generation ship into the scene of a police mystery. The Archimedes has spent more than a century traveling toward Tau Ceti, with its fifth-generation population held together by strict rules and a mission none of them chose. Then a junior officer says he was abducted outside a bar and returned 24 hours later with no memory of what happened.

One Lost Day Threatens the Mission

Officer Faisal Vasconcelos first has to decide whether the claim is real or simply the aftermath of a drunken night. The investigation soon reaches beyond one missing day, stirring political and social tensions inside a community that cannot escape its own boundaries. On a closed ship, every suspect is also part of the population needed to keep everyone alive.

A Procedural With No Outside Help

The novel combines a police procedural with the pressure of long-distance space travel, including disputes over inheritance, genetics, and who gets to shape the colony's future. Its mystery matters because the Archimedes cannot call for reinforcements or replace a damaged society. Every answer Faisal finds could protect the voyage, or expose a fault line that has been traveling with the ship for generations.