To Earth and Back: The Afterlife

The year is 1948—the onset of the of the Arab-Israeli War. A young Jewish-Christian woman has been rescued from her Syrian assailants by an alien crew from a distant civilization. Hours later she awakens aboard a massive starship, complete with mind-numbing technology and an alien crew numbering in excess of four hundred. For thirteen years she has been the case study of the ship's surgeon and is stunned to find herself the object of his affection. With the loss of her family during the great war, a history of diabetes, and a recent diagnosis of cancer, her future seems bleak. Yet the rescue crew has given a glimmer of hope. Dazed and conflicted, she must weigh two very different courses of action—stay on with her new friends and give love a chance or return to Earth and her own people. Either way, the crew of Earth Research Station 23 will never be the same.

William Boardman is the author of the To Earth and Back series (The Mission, The Afterlife). He is a retired US Air Force photojournalist whose career spanned 26 years and took him to locations around the world: Far East, Middle East, Europe, Asia, South Pacific, South America, and North America (46 states plus Canada).
After completing photojournalism training at Syracuse University, his work entailed mixing words and imagery to tell the Air Force story. Subject matter included military deployment and conflict, aeronautical research, humanitarian relief, aerial imaging, human interest, etc. His work has been published in military publications and national periodicals.