Book Eight: Beyond the Unknown. This seventh sequel to The Book in the Loft series, involves the fulfilling of a dying man's wish that takes Commander Neil MacBruce and the crews of Explorer and Star Traveler billions of light-years within our universe, which according to scientists and astrophysicists may have no beginning and no end. How is it then an object well beyond what seemed to be the end of the natural universe was detected by the satellite arrays of the Federation of Galactic Worlds circling the farthest known galaxy? The starships Explorer and Star Traveler, along with two starships from Earth, set out to investigate what the satellites have detected. What unknowns will the starship crews discover over 16 billion light-years away, and how will they unravel the questions that lie beyond the unknown? In their attempt to find the answers, both the possible and impossible are revealed - and Neil MacBruce and the crews from the Circle of Planets begin a journey that finds them engaged in a life and death struggle to help a world subdue a ruthless enemy with a foolproof plan. But they soon learn that the best laid plans often go astray.