);
}
/* ---------- abstract silhouette portrait (no real-person likeness) ----------
Simple angular bust silhouette + HUD chrome. Use as a placeholder for a real
portrait commission later. */
function Silhouette({ variant = 0 }) {
// 4 subtly different head/shoulder shapes so the dossiers don't look identical
const paths = [
// 0 — square jaw
"M50,30 C58,30 64,36 64,46 C64,53 61,58 58,61 L60,68 C72,72 80,80 84,92 L84,100 L16,100 L16,92 C20,80 28,72 40,68 L42,61 C39,58 36,53 36,46 C36,36 42,30 50,30 Z",
// 1 — narrower
"M50,28 C58,28 63,35 63,45 C63,52 60,58 57,61 L59,68 C73,73 82,82 86,94 L86,100 L14,100 L14,94 C18,82 27,73 41,68 L43,61 C40,58 37,52 37,45 C37,35 42,28 50,28 Z",
// 2 — rounder
"M50,32 C59,32 65,38 65,48 C65,55 62,60 58,63 L60,69 C71,73 79,81 83,93 L83,100 L17,100 L17,93 C21,81 29,73 40,69 L42,63 C38,60 35,55 35,48 C35,38 41,32 50,32 Z",
// 3 — slim
"M50,29 C57,29 62,35 62,44 C62,51 59,57 56,60 L58,67 C70,71 79,80 83,92 L83,100 L17,100 L17,92 C21,80 30,71 42,67 L44,60 C41,57 38,51 38,44 C38,35 43,29 50,29 Z",
];
return (
);
}
/* ---------- direct order form (mailto-based for static hosting) ---------- */
function DirectOrderForm() {
const [format, setFormat] = useState("paperback");
const [qty, setQty] = useState(1);
const [name, setName] = useState("");
const [email, setEmail] = useState("");
const [addr, setAddr] = useState("");
const [signed, setSigned] = useState(true);
const [dedication, setDedication] = useState("");
const subject = `Direct order: The Alethean Legacy (${format} × ${qty})`;
const body = [
`Format: ${format}`,
`Quantity: ${qty}`,
`Signed: ${signed ? "yes" : "no"}`,
dedication ? `Dedication: ${dedication}` : null,
"",
`Name: ${name}`,
`Email: ${email}`,
`Shipping address:`,
addr,
].filter(Boolean).join("\n");
const href = `mailto:hello@robking.example?subject=${encodeURIComponent(subject)}&body=${encodeURIComponent(body)}`;
return (
);
}
/* ---------- crew data ---------- */const CREW = [
{
callsign: "M-01",
name: "Ryan Marshall",
role: "Captain · Commanding Officer",
origin: "Newcastle, UK",
age: "Mid-30s",
unit: "22 SAS (active)",
clearance: "OMEGA",
bio: "Stepped through an Alethean portal mid-operation in Iraq and stepped out into orbit. Inherits a ship he doesn't understand and an 18-year deadline he can't ignore.",
detail: "A career soldier turned reluctant captain, Marshall holds the line between the people he chose and the deadline he can't outrun. Pragmatic, allergic to ceremony, fluent in four flavours of insubordination.",
specialty: "Command · CQB · Ship Systems",
variant: 0,
},
{
callsign: "M-02",
name: "John Medforth",
role: "First Officer",
origin: "London, UK",
age: "Late 40s",
unit: "22 SAS (ret.) · former DS, Selection",
clearance: "OMEGA",
bio: "Ran SAS Selection for years. Knows how to break a man and how to put him back together — both useful, when the crew you're given is the only crew you'll get.",
detail: "Medforth is the steady hand on Marshall's shoulder and the bad cop in every wardroom. Two decades of choosing who deserved to wear the badge means he has a finely tuned ear for bullshit, ambition, and quiet courage.",
specialty: "Leadership · Selection · CQB",
variant: 1,
},
{
callsign: "H-03",
name: "Chris Howells",
role: "Chief Engineer",
origin: "Cardiff, UK",
age: "Mid-30s",
unit: "Formula 1 · former Chief Engineer",
clearance: "OMEGA",
bio: "Spent his career squeezing tenths out of engines that cost more than houses. Now squeezing performance out of a 400-year-old ship whose manual nobody can read.",
detail: "Howells thinks in tolerances and lap times. He treats the Alethean drive like a misbehaving racing engine — instrument it, listen to it, fix the part nobody else thought was broken.",
specialty: "Propulsion · Thermal · Materials",
variant: 2,
},
{
callsign: "H-04",
name: "Julia Harrison",
role: "Chief Medical Officer",
origin: "Oxford, UK",
age: "Mid-30s",
unit: "Médecins Sans Frontières (fmr.)",
clearance: "OMEGA",
bio: "The ship's doctor. Keeps the crew alive and runs down the pathogen that emptied the Alethean home world four hundred years ago — because nobody has ruled out it finding its way here next.",
detail: "Harrison runs the sickbay and, by necessity, the only working pathology lab in Earth orbit. Pragmatic, sharp, untheatrical — the team's compass when nothing on the bridge looks human.",
specialty: "Trauma · Pathology · Pharmacology",
variant: 3,
},
{
callsign: "S-05",
name: "Ricky Singh",
role: "Pilot",
origin: "Birmingham, UK",
age: "Late 20s",
unit: "RAF (fmr.)",
clearance: "OMEGA",
bio: "Flies the only working Alethean vessel in the solar system. Learnt to fly it the way most pilots learn — by guessing, swearing, and not crashing.",
detail: "Singh has the lightest hands of anyone on the bridge and the worst poker face. Half pilot, half translator — he's the one who first got the ship to answer when spoken to.",
specialty: "Flight Control · Navigation · Systems",
variant: 0,
},
];
/* ---------- crew dossier ---------- */
function Dossier({ person, idx, onOpen }) {
return (
onOpen(person)}>
Available now · eBook · Audiobook · Direct from the author
The AletheanLegacy
A Novel by Rob King
An SAS operator steps through an Alethean portal in the middle of a firefight in Iraq —
and out into the bridge of a 400-year-old derelict in Earth orbit. Its crew
is dead. Its mission is unfinished. And he has eighteen years to build a
fleet before something new comes for the planet.
Ryan Marshall is on a routine SAS extraction when something pulls
him out of the world entirely — and into the corridors of a vessel that has
been quietly orbiting Earth for four centuries.
The Aletheans were tall, insectoid, patient. They came to watch us —
and never went home. A pathogen brought back from another world killed
their species on the home planet, leaving the orbiting crew with nowhere
to return to and no way to reproduce. For centuries they watched alone.
When the last of them died, the ship was left adrift above us.
What Marshall learns aboard the ship is worse than the silence. There
is something coming. He has eighteen years to build a fleet of replica
Alethean ships — alone, with the crew he has and the specialists he can
recruit in secret. The Aletheans left him a legacy. The question is whether
he can finish it in time.
{/* Crew */}
Personnel · Marshall protocol
The crew.
// Senior officers · OMEGA
{CREW.map((p, i) => )}
Senior officers · 05 of 05 · Wider crew classified
{/* Lore */}
Subject · Aletheans & the Holo-Mesh
A blanket over the sky.
The Aletheans// 01
Seven feet tall. Patient. Gone.
An insectoid civilisation that crossed an unimaginable distance to study us
four hundred years ago. A pathogen brought back from another world killed
their species on the home planet — marooning the crew above us, with no
way home and no way to reproduce. They watched alone for centuries. When
the last of them died, the most advanced vessel in our solar system was
left drifting empty above our heads.
The Holo-Mesh// 02
The lie above our heads.
A holographic projection wrapped around the Earth, broadcasting a clean,
empty sky downward. Every observatory, every satellite, every airline pilot
has been looking up at a forgery. The ship has hidden behind it since the
reign of Charles I.
The Threat// 03
Eighteen years out.
Something is coming. New, hostile, and unconcerned with us. Marshall has
eighteen years to build a fleet of replica Alethean ships — quietly, in
the dark, with the crew he has and whoever else he can pull in.
{/* Buy */}
Get the book
Take command.
The Alethean Legacy is available now as an eBook, an audiobook, and direct from the author.
Read it before the eighteen years run out.
Rob King is a British sci-fi fan from the north of England. Heavily
influenced by the likes of Star Trek, Isaac Asimov, and the SAS novels of
Chris Ryan, the idea for The Alethean Legacy took twenty years to become a
complete story.