As the title suggests, this is a bit of a different take on the first contact story. We follow three astronauts on tenth mission to Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede. Previous missions have found fossil lifeforms and established a base on the moon.

Asimovs September/October 2025

The three astronauts make some new groundbreaking discovery on the alien life on Ganymede, but simultaneously a galactic storm hits the solar system (sort of like a big solar flare with radiation) that wreaks havoc.

What hooked me with this story wasn’t the plot, and it almost takes a backseat, but the whole atmosphere, the characters and the world building around everything. Things aren’t overly explained, but we get a sense of how these astronauts have a certain “honor”-culture the abide by, which influences their choices. It is a rare thing to read a science fiction story that not only imagines a different technological future, but also how people might be different.

Read in Asimov’s September/October 2025
Rating: 4