Space Science Exploration

Commander Anna Dimitrovic leads a crew of four on remote Deep Space Research Station Thirteen. Six months of electromagnetic research, then home. Simple. Routine. But the cameras are showing intruders. The frequencies are spelling out warnings. And one by one, her people are changing. Anna knows the signs. She won't let Kandahar happen again. She'll protect her crew, even from themselves. Even if they beg her to stop. In the silence of deep space, the most dangerous enemy might be the one that's always been inside.

Journeying to the bustling spaceport of Hinterland after being saved from certain death by a dubious Rogue Trader, Zelia, Talen and Mekki continue their quest to reach the Emperor’s Seat. But much here is not what it seems. Alone in a strange place and surrounded by aliens, whom can they really trust, and what are the secrets of the Tau?

It is a bizarrely beautiful image: A man in a spacesuit stands isolated in an alien world. His companion, the photographer, and their landing craft are reflected in his visor. This photograph, taken by Neil Armstrong of fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin, is the most famous documentation of America’s 1969 moon landing. But to people in every country on Earth, it represented and still does so much more.

Invading the planet where his child's a captive… It's a mission fraught with such grave risks that only the best Special Forces can go. After months of proving his skills, Gage has finally gained the opportunity. But little does he know what steel is forged by this solemn duty. His kid's at the center of a war between factions that could spell the end of galactic empires. Fleets are inbound. Weapons are ready. No expanse is too great a chasm for a Marine to cross for his son.

Twelve-year-old twins Raz and Kiley are headed underground, along with everyone else aboard the asteroid station. Their home is about to pass through a band of deadly space radiation, and in the lower level they'll be safe. But soon, the kids spot ghostly figures flickering in the halls. Rooms suddenly appear abandoned and rundown.

As Kaden and Nea embark on a mission to some of the deadliest enemy planets, they fight side by side, and uncover each other’s darkest secrets. Following the trail leading to their captive queen, Nea and Kaden will face their most dangerous battle yet, and a fiery passion that will engulf them both.

In Ben Bova’s novel Jupiter, physicist Grant Archer led an expedition into Jupiter’s planet-wide ocean, attempting to study the unusual and massive creatures that call the planet their home. Unprepared for the hostile environment and crushing pressures, Grant’s team faced certain death as their ship malfunctioned and slowly sank to the planet’s depths. However, one of Jupiter’s native creatures—a city-sized leviathan—saved the doomed ship.

The urge to explore and discover is a natural and universal one, and the edge of the unknown is expanded with each passing year as scientific advancements inch us closer and closer to the outer reaches of our solar system and the galaxies beyond them. Generations of writers have explored these new frontiers and the endless possibilities they present in great detail. The Final Frontier delivers stories from across this literary spectrum, a reminder that the universe is far large and brimming with possibilities than we could ever imagine, as hard as we may try.

Matthew is a normal 11-year-old boy living with his parents and little sister in Surrey. He's too old and sensible to have an imaginary friend really. Yet when Matthew's parents keep finding him talking and arguing with a strange presence whom Matthew calls Chocky, that's what they believe it must be…at first. But Chocky is oddly sinister, and keeps asking Matthew all sorts of complicated questions about the world and making him behave in unusual and erratic ways. Then Matthew suddenly does something heroic, well beyond his capabilities; the media become interested and the interest in Matthew widens.

Claim an inheritance. It's a simple goal, right? Nothing is simple when Cole returns to Centauri, the seat of Coleson Interstellar Engineering. Challenges at every turn, with no idea who he can trust. And then...the Solar Republic gets involved. Will Cole find the people working against him in time? Will they succeed in ending the Coleson line once and for all?

What waits at the galaxy’s core? Joe has begun to realize the full extent of his powers as a Shiva Knight. But the foe he faces is ancient and cunning. It’s a race to the center of the galaxy between Joe and the ruthless bot-man, Fairfax. The enemy’s armies are legion. But for Joe, it’s not about survival anymore. It’s about saving everything he holds dear. Even if it means paying with his life.

Captain Cirilo Webster is a loyal officer of the Santiago Corporation, the multistellar megacorporation that controlls all travel between the Seventy-Seven human colonies. Finally given command of his first interstellar freighter, he is determined to do well by both his crew and his employers—but nothing is ever that simple. His crew is used to Captains passing through on their way to better ships. The Company’s policies have made more enemies than he can count. Their mission is unusual and the client might be lying to him. And if all of that wasn’t enough?

What happens when a Galactic Federation of peaceful planets offers humanity a chance to join them and with it a gigantic leap into a bright future filled with all the marvels a billion-year advance of technology and intelligence can offer? All we have to do is renounce violence, embrace peace, and evolve into a higher consciousness. But if we don't, we may soon find ourselves quarantined, or worse, eradicated like a virus to prevent our violent ways from spreading across the galaxy. The clock is ticking. Now it's on the shoulders of a few unlikely heroes to save the day before it's too late.

A wave of death is spreading through the Milky Way galaxy, an expanding sphere of lethal gamma radiation that erupted from the galaxy's core 28,000 years ago. Every world it touched was wiped clean of all life. But it's possible to protect a planet from gamma radiation. Now, guided by the ancient intelligent machines called the Predecessors, men and women from Earth seek out those precious, rare worlds that harbor intelligent species, determined to save them.

The revolution that won Coyote's independence from Earth is 20 years past. Coyote's aging computers, aircraft, and medical equipment are badly in need of replacement. And the colony's survival is in question. Now the colony's hard-won independence depends on the descendants of Coyote's original settlers-versus help from Earth that may be more of a detriment than a boon.

The conclave continually pressures the Imperium Empire by ousting peacekeepers and Radag mercenaries from imperial territories. This interdicts resources bound for Krackus worlds from the suborned races and exacerbates Imperium distribution protocols. On Jegstrat, a populous Krackus world, declining grain shipments lead to favoring distribution to large companies. Saboteurs plan to slow production at Imperial Grains, the largest processing plant. The goal is to rebalance grain distribution, but the attack goes terribly awry, causing death and great damage.

Welcome to Cachalot, a planet made almost entirely of water, an ocean refuge for Earth's marine mammals, rescued from near extinction at the hands of humans thousands of years ago. Free from predators and human impact, the whales thrive in their new home, growing in size and intelligence. Everything is perfect. Until humans decide to establish floating towns on Cachalot, drawn by the planet's abundant natural resources.

Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. An experimental low-orbit spaceplane breaks up on reentry, falling to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. And in its wake is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of spaceflight.

When Kell and his team return to Earth many years after their departure, they find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition. Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift. Few people want to face Jordan Kell's news. He must convince Earth's new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy's heart.

The Oracle has Seen the end of Civilization, and the end of the Haosa, too. Reactions to this are—mixed. On the one hand, foresight is a notoriously erratic Gift. On the other, can Civilization—or the Haosa—afford to assume that the prophecy is an error? And if the Oracle has Seen truly—is it possible to alter the future?