The mysterious cube on Aldebaran was destroyed by a terrorist, along with the quantum gate that allowed passage to a new world – stranding Kim and her team on the other side. At least, they did manage to find – and befriend - the intruder who’d kidnapped Marie. Meeting his people, Kim discovers that the planet has recently begun being plagued by strange phenomena. What is the young woman going to find out – and what sort of impact will it have on Humanity’s future?

After the events on Antares, the first official contact between Humans and the Tsalterian civilisation can take place on Aldebaran. Limited in scope, it is to involve only two groups of scientists studying a mysterious structure of unknown origin – all under the aegis of Kim, the only ambassador the aliens are willing to accept. A situation that’s not to everyone’s taste on the Human side ... But as things threaten to take a wrong turn, Marie, one of the survivors brought to Aldebaran by Sven the Tsalterian, suddenly intervenes ......

Kim’s team has travelled through the quantum gate inside the mysterious cube, and begun exploring the planet on the other side, but soon the expedition loses a member: Marie vanishes, abducted by an unknown human. Her teammates will do anything in their power to find her, but they lack resources, and Kim returns to Aldebaran to obtain some. Unfortunately, the political situation on her home planet is quickly deteriorating, and the terrorists are still bent on harming her and her work.

Bad luck, shoddy equipment and hostile fauna have stranded Kim and her companions thousands of miles from the Antares expedition’s base camp. Abandoned to their fate by the fanatical leaders who cannot abide Kim’s independent streak, wracked by internal dissent, the little group must make its way back through an unknown, terrifying land a long journey that will raise many questions and cost many lives.

Humanity migrates to a new planet, the secrets of which Kim Keller will have to unravel. After the failure of the Betelgeuse colonisation mission, Kim is back on Earth, where she is an increasingly popular figure. Meanwhile, advance scouts on planet Antares have witnessed some distressingly strange events. Worried about the future of this new mission, the sponsors of the Antares project call upon Kim to accompany the first colonists, offering legal amnesty for Alexa and Mark in exchange. It’s the beginning of a new adventure for the young woman and her friends.

The Antares mission is underway. Kim, her daughter and her companions are on board the interstellar ship that carries the would-be colonists. Conditions are far from ideal, though. The fanaticism and bigotry of a large number of the passengers, all members of the project leader’s sect, are putting everyone on edge. As well, there are rumours of substandard equipment for the expedition. By the time they reach Antares, Kim and her friends are already disillusioned... and the worst is yet to come.

I’M LOST. I’M SCARED. AND THERE’S SOMETHING HORRIBLE IN HERE. My name is Gary Rendell. I’m an astronaut. When they asked me as a kid what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said, “astronaut, please!” I dreamed astronaut, I worked astronaut, I studied astronaut. I got lucky; when a probe exploring the Oort Cloud found a strange alien rock and an international team of scientists was put together to go and look at it, I made the draw. I got even luckier. When disaster hit and our team was split up, scattered through the endless cold tunnels, I somehow survived. Now I’m lost, and alone, and scared, and there’s something horrible in here. Lucky me. Lucky, lucky, lucky. A new standalone novella by the Arthur C Clarke Award-winning author of Children of Time.