For many fans of actor Nathan Fillion, space remains one of the best settings for his thespian skills. He proved it beyond compare as Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds of Firefly and Serenity fame, but he’s largely avoided going back for any role except for the odd voice cameo in film like Guardians of the Galaxy or video game character such as Halo.

But he’s finally heading back out into the universe … sorta.

Fillion is voicing his very first audiobook narration for The Salvage Crew, a sci-fi novel written by Sri Lankan author and data Yudhanjaya Wijeratne (Numbercaste and The Inhuman Race), and published by Aethon Books.

For the tale, the actor will embody the first-person narrative of a human-convict-turned-AI-overseer that is tasked with making sure that colonists meant to settle planets get there unscathed. Cranky about its lot in life, the grizzled tech observes and reports on his charges as they try to set up a functional society before scores of backup residents arrive.

Available from Podium Audio on October 27, 2020, SYFY WIRE revealed this exclusive excerpt of Fillion’s narration of The Salvage Crew: