Hard Contact

Humanity's future has been disrupted and shaped by the mysterious alien Jackaroo. We spread to the planets they gave us, and we discovered the ruins of a dozen previous civilisations. All previous clients of the Jackaroo, all dead. So far we have escaped that fate - but we have also escaped from the Jackaroos' planets and begun to explore the galaxy. The discovery of ancient spaceships and the unlocking of their mysteries has led to a new way of life. But humanity's failings and conflicts are always with us.

Rick and his crew live on the edge of Earth Corps space, where the law is what you make it and the taxman doth fear to tread. While a war rages, he salvages its wreckage, profiteering from the misery of others. Despite his plan to sit it out from the sidelines and fill his pockets, Rick is drawn into a galactic conflict. When an alien armada is set to crash down upon Sol, he has to choose between cold hard cash or his conscience.

Nova ist ein einsamer Planet, seit ewigen Zeiten unterwegs zur Andromeda-Galaxie. Und doch ist er bewohnt – von Menschen, die nie etwas anderes kennengelernt haben als die Höhlen unter der Oberfläche, die sie vor dem Vakuum und der kosmischen Strahlung schützen. Eine überraschende Begegnung ändert alles. Der Planet bekommt Besucher, die ihre eigenen Pläne zu haben scheinen und dabei so fremdartig sind, dass Kommunikation aussichtslos erscheint.

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Are the extraterrestrial Flickers what they seem to be? They're outwardly friendly, sometimes more than that. But troubling questions have emerged: What of the destroyed village on the Flicker world Alpha Orionis 8? Is there an acceptable explanation for the adult humans living on Flicker worlds, who were taken up by flying saucers as infants? And the biggest questions of all: What drew the Flickers to the solar system in the first place, and are the communities on Mars the first wave of a Flicker invasion? These are just some of the questions troubling Mac and Chuck, and there's more.

When the first astronauts of the Mars Colony returned to Earth, they brought a mysterious, metal box they had found half-buried in the red dirt, called the Mars Cube. The scientists assigned to uncover its secrets tested it, scanned it, tried to blow it up, and everything in between. Then they accidentally opened it. Biosafety level-4 laboratories, BSL4, hold the most deadly viruses on the Earth, and Juliet handled them daily. Her research at the CDC landed her a position on the Mars Cube Investigative Team in the world’s only BSL-5 lab.

Relationships get complicated when you don’t know who - or what - you really are. Esen must find a way to rescue a hapless group of chimeras, beings who are a new and unique blend of species she knows, when she can’t become one herself. When Evan Gooseberry tries to help, he is shattered to learn he himself isn’t entirely Human and begins to suspect his new friend Esen isn’t what she seems. Complicating matters, a mysterious contagion has killed the crew of the ship that brought the chimeras - and Evan - to Botharis.

The aliens are here. And they want to help. The extraordinary new project from one of the country's most acclaimed and consistently brilliant SF novelists of the last 30 years. The Jackaroo have given humanity 15 worlds and the means to reach them. They're a chance to start over, but they're also littered with ruins and artifacts left by the Jackaroos' previous clients.

In the distant future, humanity is still alone among the stars. War ravages the superpowers of the planet in a seemingly never-ending conflict. Technological advancements to aid both sides of the war has pushed humans into the stars, in an effort for resources and colonization. The United Federation of Nations chose four planets for colonization, three were successful. During colonization, they discovered an ancient technology: the hyper-drive. Humanity had instant and unlimited access to its colonies, but the war continued to ravage.

In the year 2255, of all the sentient beings in her universe, it was a woman named Salma, twenty years old, who was the first fully to see the object called Planet Nine. See with her own eyes, albeit moderated by her ship's instruments. If not to recognise what it was, not yet. Not that the object turned out to be a planet, or the 'ninth' of anything. Briefly thought to be a black hole, it suddenly changes, expands and sends a message. There is something waiting on its service. Something not quite human.

Their family reunion will be disrupted, however, when a catastrophe strikes the space station. The crew of the Edison suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives - and amongst the chaos, Taniya will discover that she's not the only member of the crew with a secret....

On a distant planet, a fragile peace is about to be shattered.New Bali is a swamp world located 20 light-years from Earth. Colonized by humans almost two hundred years before, the planet is also home to an intelligent, methane-breathing race of amphibians. The natives have a unique culture that precludes war and vengeance, but recent events have begun to unravel a once fragile peace. Sophie Singh, heir to a vast conglomerate, must decide whether to retain her family's control of Wetworld while Brother Moises Borbon, a conflicted Jesuit researcher, races against time to unlock the true ...

Am Gemini North Observatorium entdeckt die NASA-Physikerin Melody Adams in Teleskopdaten einen Himmelskörper nahe Pluto, der gar nicht existieren dürfte. Was sie für ein künstliches Objekt extraterrestrischen Ursprungs hält, wird von weiten Teilen der Wissenschaftswelt als Messfehler abgetan und die NASA scheut Ablenkungen von ihrem Artemis-Programm. Erst zwei Jahre später erhält Melody Besuch vom Secret Service. Das Objekt nähert sich Saturn und verhält sich eigenartig: Es wird langsamer.

La forma de vida que nuestros exploradores han descubierto en Encélado les ha dejado un mensaje inequívoco: en la luna Ío de Júpiter anida un peligro que amenaza a toda la humanidad. Sin embargo, resulta desconcertante que Ío pueda albergar nada. Su superficie, hecha de lava ardiente, mares de azufre y erupciones es lo más parecido al infierno que hay en todo el universo. Nuestros héroes tendrán que desviarse de su camino de regreso a la Tierra para indagar, sin saber que ya llevan un peligro oculto a bordo.

Jonathan Bartell is a young man, just out of university, when he signs up for the position of Quarantine Officer at the Orbital Launch Station. He is part of a crop of students who flocked to study exo-biology when bacteria were discovered on Mars and who are now all making their living flipping burgers because the jobs are few and hard to get. He is lucky to get a job in space, no matter how mundane. Or so he thinks.... Gaby Larsen is a doctor at the tiny hospital at the space station, and she keeps secrets.

Before the time of man, according to the ancient legends, the gods walked the earth. The Egyptians had a name for this time. They called it "Zep Tepi" - the first time. That time is where this story began. Five Moons: Zep Tepi picks up the story 10,000 years later.... It all started with an emergency call from a world at the farthest edges of explored space. “You are our only hope,” they tell Dallas Blake and the crew of the Five Moons. A deadly virus will kill them all if the Five Moons doesn’t get the vaccine to them right away.

Earth's first interstellar mission arrives at the exoplanet Alpha Centauri Bb, believing it to be uninhabitable, to discover the joys and horrors of near light-speed travel.

Get all four volumes of Salvage-5 in one convenient bundle! Retired Colonel Tucker Petersen is suddenly recalled to active duty and put in charge of the Salvage-5 mining/recovery mission. Tucker travels with his crew to discover what went wrong with the CSMO mining dredge at 15 Eunomia. What they find will change their lives forever.

Learning how to fly is just the beginning of this hero's journey! Nelson is a superhero with an embarrassing problem… He can't fly very well and he's been ordered to attend remedial flying school. If he doesn't pass the class he'll lost his superhero license and have to work at the weather bureau. But a class in remedial flying is just the beginning of his problems. His girlfriend thinks he’s self-obsessed, and his mom won’t get off his case about not living up to the family legacy. When Nelson is framed for a crime and sent to the Defining Center of Adjustments, the sinister warden ...

The adventures of Christiaan, Daniel, and Hannah continue on the planet Hyperios. It’s the third planet among the 12 Planets the three Tellurians have visited. It doesn’t go well. They endure crisis after crisis. When Christiaan mysteriously vanishes while trying to return to Schyllus, Daniel goes in search of him, leaving Hannah all alone on Hyperios — for decades — just as things go from bad to apocalyptic. Daniel eventually finds his dad in a strange solar system in the unknown part of the universe called Eternity, where phantasmal laws prevail. There, they encounter a mysterious...