Earthrise: First Contact

Copyright J.C. Gunn 2018

December 31st, 2099, Seattle-Vancouver, Capitol of the NAA. During the raucous outdoor celebrations in the cool winter's night, a 17-year-old girl is killed by debris from a derelict Soviet-era space station. She becomes the first person in history killed in this way. The public is outraged and demands action. There are tens of thousands of cataloged pieces of space junk in orbit and many which are not even tracked. The remnants of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China are unable to assist in this monumental task. It is up to the newly formed North American Alliance Fleet to solve the problem. Project CORDS is born.

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The orbital debris salvage ship THX-1138 and its young Commander Lieutenant Joachim Lee and his crew are tasked to de-orbit an abandoned space station from the mid 21st century. They find the station has had a visitor from somewhere in the Deep Dark.

This novella is a prequel to Earthrise: 2176 and takes place in the Universe of that novel. It tells the tale of an event which took place approximately 50 years before the adventures of the crew of the starship Richard P. Feynman. During the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS), the North American Alliance orbital debris salvage ship THX-1138 and its crew found something unusual was going on with The Station Long March of the People #7. Was this event the real First Contact?