Maiden Voyager — R. Edward Main

By the end of the twenty-first century, interstellar travel has become a reality due to the discovery of tears in the fabric of space. Called the Void, these dimensionless rifts provide pathways between the stars that can be navigated by those with exceptional mental powers. But crossings must be completed in a matter of minutes, before the Void pilots lose all sense of their physical reality. Jackie Claver's sheltered life in a posh girls' school ends when the ship her father pilots becomes lost during a crossing. Sensing he still lives, the teenager is convinced she can mind-link with him to guide him out. But no qualified pilot will risk such an impossible mission. Then Jackie learns of a former Void pilot named Crow whom her father once befriended. Crow, to Jackie's great disappointment, turns out to be a seedy alcoholic. Still, he agrees to help. Together, they hijack a small rental craft and fly it into the Void. Then Crow has a heart attack and dies. Trapped in the Void, Jackie finds herself mysteriously transported to a strange fantasy world populated by animal-like humanoids, a world that shouldn't exist. Left completely on her own now, Jackie must solve the riddle of this world's existence. Then she must look within herself to find the means to confront and defeat the powerful being that created it, even if that being turns out to be her own father.

R. Edward Main resides with his wife, Jackie, in Salem, Oregon.