They Walked Like Men

A story, 1953 (Target Generation = Spacebred Generations)

For more than a thousand years, a Ship built by people has been rushing through the black-and-starry ocean of the Universe. Already forty generations have changed onboard the Ship. People long ago forgot their purpose and created a Myth of the one most reliable and unmoving world—the Ship—around which flow and scatter the stars. For its inhabitants, the Ship became about the same as Earth was for the ancient Babylonians—a solid ground at the center of the Universe, around which stars move, illuminating and warming it.

The hero of the story is John Hovff, accused of heresy, who has lost his friends and is forced to become an executioner. He will be the first to understand that the mighty Mind of Humanity has been leading the Ship toward its goal for more than a thousand years and invisibly directs the actions of people.