As you read this, something very real and old is passing behind our Sun. We call it 3I/ATLAS, the third confirmed interstellar object ever detected. Each story that follows explores a different possible future that this ancient visitor might reveal to humanity as it comes around the Sun. These are meditations on what we might learn from something that has traveled far further than we know how to… (yet).
FBI Agent Kenneth Malone faces his toughest challenge yet, discovering why the government operates so inefficiently. Is it a plot by some mastermind operating out of the Kremlin? Or is it an even deeper conspiracy whose goal is to sow confusion and chaos throughout the world. Will Malone be able to find the cause of the mysterious psychic static causing the disruption? What will he find when he faces the Supermind?
There's some reaction these days that holds scientists responsible for war. Take it one step further: What happens if "book-learnin'" is held responsible.?
The loss of solar heating has caused the Earth's atmosphere to freeze into thick layers of "snow". The boy's father had worked with a group of other scientists to construct a large shelter, but the earthquakes accompanying the disaster had destroyed it and killed the others. He managed to construct a smaller, makeshift shelter called the "Nest" for his family, where they maintain a breathable atmosphere by periodically retrieving pails of frozen oxygen to thaw over a fire.
Under normal conditions a whole person has a decided advantage over a handicapped one. But out in deep space the normal may be reversed--for humans at any rate.