Search Worlds Without End

The Fermi Paradox is the apparent contradiction between the high probablity of extraterrestrial civilizations' existence and the lack of contract with such civilizations.

In Paradox, a selection of the world's leading science fiction authors are joined by physicists and other scientists in this collection of exciting and original stories inspired by Fermi's famous paradox, daring to ask...

Where is everyone?

Contents:

• 7 - Fermi Paradox: An Introduction - essay by Marek Kakula and Rob Edwards
• 17 - Catching Rays - shortfiction by David L. Clements
• 39 - The Big Next - shortfiction by Pat Cadigan
• 47 - Baedeker's Fermi - shortfiction by Adam Roberts
• 61 - Zeta Reticuli - shortfiction by Paul Cornell
• 69 - The Ambulance Chaser - shortfiction by Tricia Sullivan
• 81 - Lost to Their Own Devices - shortfiction by Adrian Tchaikovsky
• 89 - In the Beginning - shortfiction by Gerry Webb
• 105 - The Trial of the Creator, The Trial of the Creation - shortfiction by Paul Di Filippo
• 121 - Stella by Starlight - shortfiction by Mike Resnick and Robert T. Jeschonek
• 139 - Fermi's Doubts - shortfiction by George Zebrowski
• 149 - Audiovisionary - shortfiction by Stephanie Saulter
• 165 - Aether - shortfiction by Robert Reed
• 173 - The End of the World - shortfiction by Keith Brooke and Eric Brown
• 187 - The Worldmaker - shortfiction by Rachel Armstrong
• 209 - Atonement, Under the Blue-White Sun - shortfiction by Mercurio D. Rivera

Devi Morris isn't your average mercenary. She has plans. Big ones. And a ton of ambition. It's a combination that's going to get her killed one day - but not just yet.

That is, until she just gets a job on a tiny trade ship with a nasty reputation for surprises. The Glorious Fool isn't misnamed: it likes to get into trouble, so much so that one year of security work under its captain is equal to five years everywhere else. With odds like that, Devi knows she's found the perfect way to get the jump on the next part of her Plan. But the Fool doesn't give up its secrets without a fight, and one year on this ship might be more than even Devi can handle.

Devi Morris has a lot of problems. And not the fun, easy-to-shoot kind either.

After a mysterious attack left her short several memories and one partner, she's determined to keep her head down, do her job, and get on with her life. But even though Devi's not actually looking for it -- trouble keeps finding her. She sees things no one else can, the black stain on her hands is growing, and she is entangled with the cook she's supposed to hate.

But when a deadly crisis exposes far more of the truth than she bargained for, Devi discovers there's worse fates than being shot, and sometimes the only people you can trust are the ones who want you dead.

From the moment she took a job on Captain Caldswell's doomed ship, Devi Morris' life has been one disaster after another: government conspiracies, two alien races out for her blood, an incurable virus that's eating her alive.

Now, with the captain missing and everyone -- even her own government -- determined to hunt her down, things are going from bad to impossible. The sensible plan would be to hide and wait for things to blow over, but Devi's never been one to shy from a fight, and she's getting mighty sick of running.

It's time to put this crisis on her terms and do what she knows is right. But with all human life hanging on her actions, the price of taking a stand might be more than she can pay.