This story gets rolling with a detective mystery, when a house burglar is found dead due a strange deadly atmosphere inside the house he broke into. An investigator with a PhD in exoplanets gets involved in the case.

Analog September/October 2026

Turns out it isn’t aliens occupying the house, but the owner belongs to a group of eccentric hobby exobiologists. He had filled his house with an atmosphere with the same composition as an exoplanet with characteristics suitable for life, in the belief that he could come as close as humanly possible to living as extraterrestrial lifeform. By trying to breathe their air and eat plants grown in the atmosphere.

The case, such as it is, is sort of quickly resolved and not really the main focus of this story. Instead it works for great characterisation and develops the concept in a bit of an unexpected direction. The forming relationship and interesting conversations between the detective investigator and the exoplanet expert is interesting, as his background the real mystery.

Read in Analog September/October 2026
Rating: 3+