Upon arrival at Proxima Centauri, the Exodus-9 crew detects a mysterious object floating in space. They believe it is an alien threat and are panicked. What follows is a chain of absurd misunderstandings, extreme paranoia, and catastrophic decisions that almost spark an interplanetary conflict... against a piece of human junk. Only a stroke of luck prevents a thermonuclear conflict.
Hale Oakham heads into the mysterious jungle to find the mysterious Sir Basil Addington and his laboratory where he has supposedly discovered amazing secrets about life, including ones which enable him to produce monsters and to change the physical characteristics of humans.
The Martians had been sending a message to Earth for 5000 years, waiting for a response, but recently stopped. Why? They have interplanetary travel, yet no way to determine if any life exists here? In our infancy of space exploration, we are thoroughly exploring Mars to see if it can or ever could have supported life as we know it.
The twins were a rare team indeed. They wanted to build a printing plant on a garbage dump. When Muldoon asked them why, their answer was entirely logical: "Because we live here."
An obsessed amateur scientist steals a diamond (and murders its owner) in order to make a lens for a super-powerful microscope; his experiment succeeds but he is driven mad by what he discovers.