Space Opera First Contact

In an effort to improve relations with the Earth, the Colonial Union has invited a contingent of diplomats from that planet to observe Ambassador Abumwe negotiate a trade deal with an alien species. Then something very bad happens to one of the Earthings, and with that, the relationship between humanity’s two factions is on the cusp of disruption once more. It’s a race to find out what really happened, and who is to blame. "The Observers" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Until the Confederation created Allora, it had produced SADEs (self-aware digital entities) for hundreds of years with enormous consistency and harnessed their capabilities to power the society. But this particular young SADE was disturbed by her confinement. Trapped in metal-alloy housing on the bridge of a luxury passenger liner, Allora sought to possess the same freedom enjoyed by humans, who came and went from her starship with abandon.

A partnership with the Sait? Over Rima's dead body. But age-old differences may have to be set aside to battle a common enemy. The Enzite Federation will stop at nothing to control the portals. While the enemy of my enemy may not be a friend they might just be a means to an end. A new alien species will be discovered in the depths of the Ivandor oceans. They hold a clue as to where the second portal may be found. However, getting them to trust Max will require an event of gladiatorial proportions.

Years after clean energy ended the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, a lull of peace encompasses all of humanity. Some think we should travel to the distant corners of the galaxy; others oppose the idea, thinking that the harnessed singularity reactors are unnatural. When a terrorist group attacks the Lunar colony, members of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force are divided as a result of the incursion. Years later, Lieutenant Commander Kyle Torres comes face to face with old friends, as he’s thrown into an assignment that could change everything.

After narrowly escaping a brutal attack, Chief Kit Carson and her surviving Pathfinders reach the Zeis Homeworld. Their mission is to seek new allies among the uncharted stars continues, but first they must end the insurrection tearing across the planet, threatening the fragile negotiations. Governor Ken Hale is in a desperate race against time to build up the colony’s defenses. When his new soldiers are found dead on the colony’s streets, he must turn to a retired assassin to help hunt down the deranged killer.

The Empire has set its sights on its next target: human Terrans. As effective allies of the Priminae, the denizens of Earth have proven themselves enemies to the Empire, and now the Imperial forces know more about the Terran home world than ever before.

Michael Poole finds himself in a very strange landscape.... This is the centre of the Galaxy. And in a history without war with the humans, the Xeelee have had time to built an immense structure here. The Xeelee Belt has a radius 10,000 times Earth's orbital distance. It is a light-year in circumference. If it was set in the solar system, it would be out in the Oort Cloud, among the comets - but circling the sun. If it was at rest, it would have a surface area equivalent to about 30 billion Earths. But it is not at rest: it rotates at near light speed.

Three years have passed, and the children are growing like weeds as Aisha grows into a new career. A mob of alien party animals has settled near Union Station like a plague, but nobody seems willing to see them off. They bring word of a new wave of helpful artificial intelligence, but perhaps there's such a thing as too helpful?

At the helm of a commandeered freighter, Captain Steph Michaels has infiltrated the Free Star systems. Leading a captive crew, and posing as a privateer, he's on a mission to seize a precious resource from an enemy outpost. Backed by his Archangel Squadron, it's a smash-and-grab operation he can pull off in his sleep. Until it isn't.

Investigating a series of violent raids by a mysterious predatory species, Captain James T. Kirk discovers that these events share a startling connection with the First Federation, a friendly but secretive civilization contacted early in the USS Enterprise's five-year mission. Traveling to the First Federation in search of answers, the Enterprise suddenly comes under attack from these strange marauders. Seeking refuge, the starship finds its way to the true home of the First Federation, an astonishing collection of worlds hidden from the galaxy beyond.

Nouveau Franconia is gone, torn into splinters by two unimaginable neutron darts. Three billion people are dead. Home Fleet has been destroyed. only the research ship, Witch, remains. So does Princess Rochelle. and she is one very pissed royal. Soon the aliens will discover the wrath of the Witch’s brew.

Two crises challenge the Omnians. Alex Racine’s fleet draws a first-contact conflict, which faces the Ollassa, a symbiotic flora race. The Omnian fleet sails from alliance space in an effort to interdict an alien ship that arrives at the Worlds of Lights, the Ollassa system. Soon after arriving, the alien ship deploys machines to scour asteroids for resources in the system’s far belt.

The continuing adventures of the survey starship Yellowjacket after an alien force larger than any in living memory sweeps through the worlds of the Engel Empire. Note: The Stars Dark series is an homage to thrilling pulp sci-fi of yesteryear. If you're interested in hard science fiction look elsewhere. But if you're looking for action-packed adventures on strange worlds with even stranger aliens, this series is for you!

Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she’ll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When she and her crewmates salvage a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.

Colonial Union diplomat Hart Schmidt is back home for Harvest Day celebrations - to a family whose members wonder whether its youngest son isn’t wasting his life clinging to the lowest rung of the CU’s diplomatic ladder. When his father, a legendarily powerful politician, presents him with a compelling offer, Schmidt has to take stock of his life and career. "This Must Be the Place" is a tale from John Scalzi's The Human Division, a series of self-contained but interrelated short stories set in the Old Man's War universe.

Captain Tom Thrush is patrolling the Octagon Rift when his ship is attacked by a black destroyer that seems to predict his every move. Outgunned and outmaneuvered, he flees in a crippled ship to the only sanctuary he can reach—a den of thieves and spies called Lotus Station. His ship will be broken up for scrap. Half the crew are casualties. The rest are scattering, leaving Tom stuck on Lotus. As the black destroyer hunts down local freighters, Tom becomes obsessed with tracking it down and taking revenge.

Eleven years ago, colonists from Earth made Galena their home. It is a planet of wondrous and deadly mysteries. Survival means adaptation—yet there can be no adaptation to an ancient corruption festering deep beneath the soil. Something is waiting down there, altering the plants and wildlife, twisting them to fit its dark plan. At the same time, progress has finally come to Galena. The dream of cities and superhighways suddenly becomes reality…and the only price is the total subjugation of the colonists who built them.

National best-selling author and winner of three Hugo Awards, C.J. Cherryh returns to the universe of her acclaimed Foreigner trilogy - with an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft stranded on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient race. The beginning of a second trilogy, Precursor follows a single human delegate living among aliens, who are just gaining access to space.

The greatest threat humanity has ever faced lies beyond the frontier of its galactic civilization, but dangers closer to home have been overlooked and allowed to grow. As greed and personal ambition in the Terran Union push the common good aside, the Navy is forced to turn to unconventional means. Jack Samson is ordered to team up with former allies to uncover and destroy the rot eating the Union from the inside. Chasing down a trail of smuggled alien technology through the Union's underworld, they soon discover the web of treachery reaches farther than anyone could have expected.

Their historic five-year mission is over. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and all the crew have scattered to other jobs or other lives. Now, they are back together again on a fabulously refitted USS Enterprise as an incredibly destructive power threatens earth and the human race.