Hard Contact

Two humans and a robot on their own in the Alpha Centauri system: Marchenko, Adam and Eve have found asylum on a planet inhabited by aliens. They could spend the rest of their lives here in peace. But apparently there are many more people who, like them, have been sent to alien systems without a return ticket and without being asked - castaways with uncertain fates who need their help. Their alien rescuers generously offer to take them on a search in one of their spaceships.

Humanity has united under one government and has started to take to the stars. However, FTL is dangerous, expensive, and still slow. So a probe is sent out to gather samples and bring them back for analysis. Dr. Avery Hutton is one of the scientists assisting in analysis back on Earth. But these samples contain something a bit nastier than anything humanity had encountered before. A pathogen that, if not contained, could kill everything on Earth.

The spaceship Majestic Draght reaches a star system whose only planet is bombarded with deadly radiation from its sun. Here, of all places, something happens that should never happen – and the crew sees their only salvation in landing on the mysterious planet orbiting the hostile star.ould have expected ... "The Proxima Logfiles" is a multi-part series based on the "Proxima" Trilogy, but can be listened to independently. "Star Trek" meets "Lost in Space" – reimagined with the scientific and technical realism of hard science fiction.

Vincent Frieso is a lowly salesman, wasting his days away at a computer store with no prospects or hopes for the future. However, when a strange new lifeform hitches a ride to Earth on an asteroid and lands in the Southern Pacific, the whole world flips over in an instant. The world that Vincent once knew had permanently changed. Whether for better or for worse, he did not yet know. Will Vincent find himself swept away by the currents of change and history? Or will he forge his own path in a world that becomes increasingly alien by the day?

Eva ist verzweifelt. Von der Forschungsmission auf die dunkle Seite des Exoplaneten Proxima Centauri b ist sie als letztes Crewmitglied übriggeblieben. Dann hat sie auch noch aus Versehen einen verhängnisvollen Prozess in Gang gesetzt, der das gesamte System zerstören wird. Während sie lediglich auf ein schnelles Ende hofft, erwacht in unmittelbarer Nähe ein außerirdisches Wesen, das viel zu lange geschlafen hat - und nun den Auftrag bekommt, die zerstörerischen Eindringlinge von der Erde zur Strecke zu bringen.

Ein intelligenter Roboter und zwei Menschen erforschen Proxima Centauri b, den Begleiter des uns nächstgelegenen Sterns. Ihre naiven Vorstellungen über den Verlauf der Mission erweisen sich auf diesem Planeten der Extreme schnell als falsch. Wo sind die Absender des Hilferufs geblieben, der sie dorthin gelockt hat? Weil alle anderen Spuren im Sand verlaufen, setzen die drei ihre letzten Hoffnungen auf eine Expedition ins ewige Eis.

Gegen Ende des 21. Jahrhunderts erreicht die Erde ein Hilferuf vom sonnennächsten Stern Proxima Centauri. Ein Strahlungsausbruch droht, die dortige Zivilisation zu vernichten. Die Menschheit ist ratlos, denn Hilfe zu leisten scheint technisch unmöglich. Einem russischen Milliardär gelingt es trotzdem, mit nicht ganz legalen Mitteln ein bemanntes Raumschiff auf die lange Reise zu schicken. Vor der ungewöhnlichen Crew steht eine übermenschliche Aufgabe. Erst recht, weil die Besatzungsmitglieder nicht mit dem rechnen, was der fremde Planet für sie bereithält.

Dr. Eliza Raines has just made the discovery of a lifetime: Actual alien ruins on the surface of Mars. But during a massive dust storm, her expedition and mankind’s first colony on the Martian surface falls radio silent. It’s assumed to be a downed transmitter in the storm. The resupply vessel Murcielago, and its crew, are directed to assist with repairs. But neurotic ship’s engineer Leo Taggart can’t shake the idea something is terribly wrong. Gruff military policeman Kyle Locklear is confident in his team’s ability to handle whatever’s going on.

Sent to Earth to explore, survey, collect samples and report back to its makers, an alien probe arrives in the middle of a warzone. Witnessing both the best and worst of humanity, the AI probe faces situations that go far beyond the parameters of its programming and is forced to improvise, making decisions that have repercussions for the future of our entire world.

Mark Thomas is a sailor on a freighter ferrying people and lithium ore between the utopian colony world, Elysium, and Earth. The starship is sabotaged, the crew presumed lost. But there's one survivor. Alone, Mark finds safe harbor in the barely charted star system, Trappist-1. Marooned, he thought that his biggest challenge was how to call for help. When he discovers that something ancient and dangerous is also marooned in the archipelago of a star system, his plight goes from bad to worse.

For exobiologist Cassie Clearwater, the chance to explore the planet Obsidian is the opportunity of a lifetime. The austere black world has liquid water and a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere that might support life. She discovers a mysterious species of plant that emits copious quantities of complex chemicals. Her colleagues on the mission care only about the diamonds they've discovered, but Cassie wonders how these plants, and nothing else, thrive in such a dark and barren environment.

Earth has attained world peace at last. Overseen by the World Council, based in Jerusalem, the planet has truly become a global community, and humanity has reached an age of enlightenment. This is the time when the visitors arrive. Wielding near-miraculous technology, they arrive claiming to have seeded Earth with humans, and have returned to claim "their own." Their claims and their appearance seem prophesied by the Bible, and religion and politics clash as arguments break out about whether these visitors have the right to take people.

In Garbriellium, the largest and most prolific of those colonies on Europa, Jupiter's ice-covered moon, Justin and Jessica Forsythe embark on related but separate quests to answer what life exists beneath the ice, how humans and AIs interrelate with one another, and set out to solve mysteries surrounding the spontaneous natural birth of the first human being in nearly 2,000 years.

It's been two years since the invasion. Two years since the slicks came to our planet and herded humanity together like cattle, placing us under constant watch in the few cities that remain. The lucky ones are left to their own devices. The unlucky few are rounded up and carted off to labor camps to face an unknown fate. Former homicide detective Adrian Grace was cut off from his family, but has somehow managed to survive. When one of the slicks is murdered, they ask him to find the killer.

Lyta and Carl are astronomy grad students who hardly know each other and are trying to figure out their lives. Arbitrarily thrown together on a project, they make a surprising discovery: an unobtrusive light in the sky shows signs of being an alien spacecraft. As they study the object more closely, they start receiving a stream of information that creates an unexpected bond with it, each other, their government, and ultimately humanity as a whole. Their story mixes first-contact science fiction, romantic drama, and technological thriller, as they negotiate the difficult questions their discoveries raise, and the extreme reactions the answers cause in others.

The mysterious species called Flickers are thought to have a base in the outer solar system. A task force is sent to find out. Living in the Kuiper Zone, the Flicker want nothing more than to be left alone. But the solar system belongs to humans. Can the two coexist? Or will history repeat and contact lead to war, as has so often happened in humanity's past?

It's May, 1978, and a UFO requests permission to land. A human girl in her early teens and a robot exit the craft, and a strange botanical lifeform is found onboard later that night by a USAF landing party. The vehicle, robot, and the strange plant are impounded and subsequently sent to Area 51. NASA astrobiologist Gabriel Greenley is called in to study this new lifeform that at first appears similar to a botanical species known as oxalis. As a psi-sensitive, Greenley quickly learns the specimen is highly intelligent and potentially dangerous when he attempts to take a leaf sample.

World War III is about to break out. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, the enigmatic extraterrestrials called the Flickers have returned with a warning: do not venture beyond the moon. Faced with the ultimate threat, can humanity put aside their differences and unite to face the common danger?

2005 setzt die von der Erde gesandte Sonde Huygens auf dem Saturnmond Titan auf. 40 Jahre später empfängt ein Radioteleskop Signale vom Titan, die nur von dem längst vergessenen Lander kommen können. Zur selben Zeit kehrt eine internationale Expedition gerade vom Nachbarmond Enceladus zurück. Die Crew landet auf Titan und stößt dort auf ein gefährliches Geheimnis, das ihre Rückkehr in Frage stellt.

Im Jahre 2031 finden Forscher in den Signalen einer Roboter-Sonde, die den Saturnmond Enceladus studiert, eindeutige Spuren biologischer Aktivität. Beweise für außerirdisches Leben - eine Weltsensation. Fünfzehn Jahre später macht sich ein eilig dafür gebautes, bemanntes Raumschiff auf die weite Reise zum Ringplaneten. Der internationalen Crew stehen nicht nur schwierige siebenundzwanzig Monate bevor: Falls sie es ohne Zwischenfall bis zum Enceladus schafft, muss sie mit einem Bohrschiff den kilometerdicken Eispanzer des Mondes durchdringen.