This is an updated version of the story 'The Adventures of Ardell Moors'. It has been updated and expanded with numerous changes made to make it a better, longer, read.
The story is about Ardell Moors, a former US Air Force pilot that fought in and after the Terror Wars on Earth before emigrating to space. There, he piloted the first manned mission to Mars where an alien signal was discovered leading the crew to a cave in the Hydroates Chaos region of the planet. In that cave is an alien system that alters Ardell's mind so that he can understand the alien language and technology, discovering it to be starship technology. This technology is then used to create Humanity's first starship that Ardell commands on the first interstellar flight. On that flight, four alien races are discovered, three friendly and one xenophobic. A war for survival is then waged against these xenophobes with them being destroyed and the Earth made uninhabitable. After the war, Ardell leads an expedition in search of these alien benefactors to find out why they left their technology behind for other races to discover and utilize. Ardell then commands a mission to the Larger Magellanic Cloud and Tarantula Nebula and is eventually able to find some peace in his life.