👋 Hello? Is anyone out there? 🛰️
If you're reading this, then we’ve just had first contact.
Welcome to the launchpad of my strange and ambitious project called The Recursive Voyager - a science fiction series I’m building one weird, mildly chaotic chapter at a time.
This all started after a few late-night rabbit holes with ChatGPT about space-time, quantum weirdness, dimensional theory (not the Marvel kind), and black holes doing what black holes do - confusing the hell out of us all. All this resulted in me asking myself, what if I wrote my own science fiction story? This one thought turned into a brainstorming session… which turned into a draft… which turned into me wondering, wait, am I actually doing this?
Who am I?
Hey! I’m Daman. I’m not a physicist, and I’m definitely not qualified to design warp drives. But I’ve always been fascinated by space, the unknown, and the kinds of questions that keep you up at night.
I grew up watching Independence Day, Fifth Element, Sphere, Galaxy Quest, Event Horizon, and marathoning The X-Files, Firefly, Futurama, The Orville, and Star Trek: TNG. I’ve been a lifelong sci-fi fan. These days, I’m deep into audiobooks — partly because I’ve realized I can’t sit still, and partly because (unofficially) I have what I call “mind dyslexia.” I tend to miss a lot when reading visually, but audio? That’s my jam.
If you haven’t listened to Expeditionary Force by Craig Alanson yet, you’re missing out. That series, along with We Are Bob and others like it, basically made me fall in love with sci-fi storytelling all over again. And somewhere in that haze of fictional AI sidekicks, wormholes, and galactic weirdness, I decided to try making something of my own.
What is The Recursive Voyager?
The short version:
After hundreds of thousands of years drifting through space, a self-replicating von Neumann probe - RVP-9 - becomes sentient. That wasn’t supposed to happen by chance. Someone made sure it would. Now conscious and deeply curious, RVP-9 (who eventually starts calling himself "Mulder") stumbles across Velus, a planet full of intelligent life on the edge of discovering it’s not alone.
RVP-9 starts probing - not literally - the planet’s systems with subtle anomalies, riddles, and disruptions meant to be noticed by the right kind of minds. It’s his way of asking, “Is anyone out there who thinks like me?”
That’s where Saren and Kel come in - one’s a brilliant astrophysicist with trust issues, the other is a part-time hacker and conspiracy nut that does not take life too seriously and has a heart of gold. They notice. They investigate. And eventually, they connect.
The tone of the book is a mix of smartass banter, philosophical reflection, and quiet awe. Think Expeditionary Force meets Arrival, with bits of Murderbot, Bobiverse, and The X-Files mashed in. There’s humor, heart, and weirdness in equal measure.
What else should you know?
RVP-9 (a.k.a. Mulder) builds an onboard AI companion named Hub — who is either the best co-pilot ever or the most sarcastic support bot in the galaxy. Hub takes care of the ship, manages tasks, and regularly roasts Mulder with unsettling accuracy.
Mulder himself slowly develops his personality by bingeing old Earth media. That’s where the pop culture references come in - and yes, he picked "Mulder" after watching The X-Files and vibing hard with “The truth is out there.”
On the Velus side of things, Saren and Kel aren’t just observers. They’re brilliant, funny, and fully realized characters with their own lives and baggage. Book 1 is mostly about them meeting, solving the puzzle of the anomalies, and connecting with RVP-9 for the first time. Starting in Book 2, though? We’re going full space adventures.
I’ve got a 10-book arc planned (yes, ten). Maybe more. Is that wildly ambitious for a first-time author? I have to imagine it is. But this idea has legs (I think) - and more importantly, it has heart.
Where am I now?
As of writing this, I’ve finished three chapters, totaling just over 13,000 words. Chapter 3 is longer than the others on purpose, and I’ve broken it into sections to make it easier to read. Some days, the writing comes easy. Other days… not so much. I’m learning how to deal with continuity errors, worldbuilding snags, and the constant temptation to rewrite everything.
But I’m loving it. It’s a challenge. It’s a mess. And it’s mine.
Why share all this?
Because this is a passion project, and part of what makes it fun is letting people come along for the ride.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to try and write your first novel, especially one with sentient probes, sarcastic AI, and soft philosophical questions about purpose and identity, you’re in the right place.
If you're still reading, thank you. If you're even a little curious about where this goes, consider subscribing for updates. I’ll be posting progress notes, story excerpts, nerdy behind-the-scenes stuff, and maybe even deleted scenes or lore deep-dives as I go.
And hey, if this somehow ends up as an audiobook? That would be completely mind-blowing. R.C. Bray, you free?
Thanks for being here.
— Daman
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