Hard Contact

Despite the title, Dickens's portrayal of early industrial society is less relentlessly grim than that in novels by contemporaries such as Elizabeth Gaskell or Charles Kingsley. Hard Times weaves the tale of Thomas Gradgrind, a hard-headed politician who raises his children Louisa and Tom without love and to have no empathy, their lives completely devoid of beauty, culture, or imagination. Only after a series of crises does their father realise that the manner in which he raised his children has ruined their lives.

Late in the 21st century, Earth receives what looks like an urgent plea for help from planet Proxima Centauri b in the closest star system to the Sun. Astrophysicists suspect a massive solar flare is about to destroy this heretofore-unknown civilization. Earth's space programs are unequipped to help, but an unscrupulous Russian billionaire launches a secret and highly-specialized spaceship to Proxima b, over four light-years away.

In the unforgiving silence of deep space, a lone astronaut awakens—disoriented, alone, and haunted by fractured memories. The cryostasis pod that saved her life now feels like a coffin. The rest of the crew? Gone—victims of mysterious malfunctions that ravaged the ship. Only a glitchy, well-meaning robot remains to keep her company.

The potential impact of runaway climate-change has long been grossly underestimated. The world is rapidly approaching an existential crisis—the Anthropogenic Extinction—the sixth annihilation of Earth-bound species since life first appeared 3.5 billion years ago. Assisted by teammates Eric Evans and Bella Moreno, and Thay Tuan, the team’s consigliere, Luc Ponti, now an astrophysicist at MIT, succeeds in creating a stabilized micro-wormhole, which is launched by NASA into high-Earth orbit and used as a means to contact intelligent life on exoplanets well within the “Goldilocks” zone.

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.

Lux keeps inventing things or adapting alien tech (ancient tech to the aliens) because the active alien civilizations they discover through portals and probes have gone through cycles of war, decline, and rebirth several times. Lux further develops the portals using discovered alien tech. Earth empties refugee camps the UN was running (1,200,000) and sends them with a military escort for their "safety." The military sends many ships for escort duty with orders to take over the colony and use the refugees as a labor force.

Manche bezeichnen sie als Verbrecher, andere als Helden der Randplaneten. Sie selbst nennen sich Frontiersmen: Furchtlose Männer und Frauen, die Fracht und Flüchtlinge dorthin schmuggeln, wo der Weltraum noch frei und wild ist. John Donovan ist einer von ihnen und chronisch knapp bei Kasse, sodass er auch riskante Jobs übernimmt. Etwa einen Passagiertransport zur rauen Koloniewelt Heaven's Gate.