by (by) Anne McCaffey (1971)
From back cover Del Ray paperback June 1979: After the first human contact with the Siwannese, that entire race committed mass suicide. So the Terran government made a law -- no further contact would be allowed with sentient creatures anywhere in the galaxy. Therefore Doona could be colonized only if an official survey established that the planet was both habitable and uninhabited. But Spacedep had made a mistake -- Doona was inhabited. Now the colonists choice was limited. Leave Doona and return to the teeming hell of an overpopulated Terra. Or kill the catlike Hrrubans. Or learn, for the first time in history, how to coexist with an alien race...
Larry Niven
Conversion of hardcopy paperback originally owned bu Boston Public Library. ePub version lacks material that was originally on the first page of many chapters, resulting in numerous discontinuities in the story.
A. E. van Vogt
Although thirty light years distant, Mittend was Earth's nearest habitable planet. So the bored young heir, Steven Masters, contrived to join the first manned expedition just for a bit of excitement. When he found himself suddenly back on Earth in another man's body, it was more than he had expected. What then followed was a veritable kaleidoscope of events that was to involve him in multiple personalities, in more expeditions to Mittend, and in the affairs of the entity called Mother for whom Mittend itself was just a means to an end -- and Steven Masters the handy next step in a galactic program.
Donald Moffitt
The Lunar Observatory on earth is picking up a very strange and unidentifiable signal from the direction of Cygnus. When the meaning of this signal is finally understood, it clearly spells disaster for earth. An immense object is rushing towards the Solar System, traveling nearly at the speed of light, its intense nuclear radiation sure to kill all life on earth within months. As it moves close the humans can discern that it is an enormous convoy of some sort, nearly as large as a planet. And there is nothing anyone can do to divert such an enormous alien object. Then, unexpectedly, the object changes course and heads toward the dead planet of Jupiter but what could an enormous alien convoy want with such a useless planet?
Yoji Kondo
This collection includes the novellas Destination moon and Tenderfoot in space, as well as personal contributions and remembrances from luminaries such as Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Silverberg, Greg Bear, and Larry Niven.