Redevelopment by George O Smith

Wesley Long's Redevelopment launches as a brisk mid-century science fiction adventure where invention, danger, and first contact collide at full speed. When Sandra Drake appears at the Plutonian Lens station begging John McBride to help find Steve Hammond, overdue after a trial voyage to Sirius, McBride agrees to refit her ship, the Lady Luck, into a super-speed craft for a desperate rescue. But Sandra's mission soon proves larger than anyone expected: she is determined to be the first human being to reach another star. As McBride, Hammond, and their crew follow her aboard the Haywire Queen, the story shifts from Pluto's rivalries and domestic goodbyes to a hard-edged chase through deep space, where Enid's quiet wisdom and a child's trust ground the cosmic drama in human feeling. At Sirius and the planet Telfu, the crew faces careful scientific surveys, strange gravitic effects, and a sudden drive failure that suggests the world itself may be interfering with their ship. When Sandra reports that Telfu's humanoid inhabitants have welcomed her, the mission becomes both a technical challenge and a profound encounter with the unknown. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.