Expendable

Expendable, a 1997 science fiction novel by Canadian author James Alan Gardner, was published by HarperCollins Publishers. It serves as the first entry in a series set in the "League of Peoples" universe, introducing the Explorer Corps and the character Festina Ramos.

The novel establishes the backstory for Gardner's fictional cosmos. Humanity develops a spacetime distortion drive, enabling travel to other star systems. Contact with diverse intelligent species follows, some so advanced they appear as "a cloud of red smoke, a glowing cube," or even invisible. These species form the League of Peoples, which governs interstellar travel. The League's core rule forbids killing sentient beings, banning war and lethal weapons in space. Species that break this rule are confined to their home systems; any "dangerous non-sentients" attempting star travel are instantly killed. Those who comply receive advanced technology. Most of humanity, from a genetically engineered New Earth, accepts this bargain, forming a Technocracy that sends out exploration fleets under a quasi-military High Council of admirals. These crews function like traditional navies, but without combat.

Planetary exploration is deadly, and in a society without war, crime, or significant illness, the deaths of healthy young people cause social trauma. The Technocracy addresses this by creating the Explorer Corps. These individuals are fit and intelligent but have physical disadvantages—handicaps, diseases, or ugliness—that mark them as outside the norm. Identified in childhood, they are conscripted and left untreated. When Explorers die, as they often do, society copes more easily.

The plot begins in 2452. Festina Ramos, an Explorer with a port-wine birthmark on her cheek, serves on the fleet ship *Jacaranda* alongside her partner Yarrun Derigha, who is missing half his jaw. They live isolated from the healthy, attractive crew. They are ordered to escort Admiral Chee to the planet Melaquin. For forty years, Explorers landing there have vanished without explanation. The High Council now sends troublesome admirals there with Explorers to dispose of them quietly, accepting the loss of Explorers as expendable. Chee, over a century old and past the point where Youthboost works, is deemed unstable and senile. Despite attempts to escape the duty, Festina and Yarrun accompany him to Melaquin.