Which Role Would You Choose Aboard Curiosity?
A signal has travelled eight thousand light-years from a dying star. Answering it means crossing the galaxy aboard a twenty-five-year-old research vessel with a crew of just six.
It is the sort of mission that sounds romantic from a safe distance. Up close, it means fifty-three days with nowhere to hide, no rescue close enough to matter, and six very different people trusting one another with their lives.
So, if Curiosity were recruiting, where would you fit?
Jennifer Starzek — Captain
Starzek once commanded the UEA starship Destiny, and carries the weight of what happened to it. She combines hard-earned authority with fierce concern for her crew. The captain has to make the decision nobody else wants to make — then live with it afterwards.
Colin Truman — Chief Engineer
Quiet, practical and exceptionally good at making failing machinery work, Truman is the person you want beside you when an ageing ship begins to object to an impossible journey. His role calls for patience, ingenuity and the ability to stay calm while everyone else asks how long the repair will take.
Liborio Romero — UEA Representative and Executive Officer
Romero is an experienced negotiator rather than a career starship officer. His value is diplomatic: understanding competing priorities, keeping six strong personalities moving in the same direction, and knowing when procedure helps — and when it no longer does.
Dr Yori Kita — Ship’s Doctor
Kita is calm, compassionate and quietly authoritative under pressure. Far beyond the reach of a hospital or rescue vessel, the doctor must protect not only six bodies but six minds, while making difficult moral judgements with limited information.
Monique Levine — Pilot
Levine has formidable nerve, sharp humour and very little patience for unnecessary hierarchy. She has already pushed a ship beyond its safety limits to keep people alive. The pilot’s job rewards instinct, precision and a willingness to act while everyone else is still calculating the odds.
Professor Travis Harrison — Operations, Communications and Linguistics
Harrison grew up speaking four languages and has an extraordinary memory for patterns. His research and translation work make him uniquely qualified to investigate the signal from WR 104. His role belongs to the person who hears meaning where everyone else hears noise — and keeps asking questions after the comfortable answers run out.
Six people. Six very different kinds of courage.
Which station would suit you best: captain, engineer, executive officer, doctor, pilot or linguist? And which one would you absolutely refuse?
You can meet the crew and explore the complete first-contact duology — or start with chapter one, free.
This piece first appeared on Goodreads on 22 August 2026.