Is it better to have a human civilization devoid of art and culture than to have none at all? Three Earth ambassadors must whether to annihilate a space colony that has traded away human consciousness for a hive mind that feels nothing but the need for survival. In the distant future, three humans in possession of nuclear warheads must decide whether to allow a remarkable human variant species without consciousness to dominate the galaxy or destroy them forever.

A young man leaves his traditional village behind to travel and work on distant planets. Throughout his interplanetary journeys, he must constantly reevaluate his understandings of truth, tradition, and love as he seeks a fulfilling life of his own, independent of what is expected from him.

In intense discussion a group leader ponders aloud, asking why hermits hide and what defines outcasts, among other cerebral queries. A group of friends discusses the oddities they have seen and perceived in their lives leather-clad hermits and criminal astronauts among them. They debate the purpose of hermitage, the classification of outcasts, and the purpose of their own reflections.

Three myths from human groups on other planets describe the origin of humanity, and the necessity of respecting nature.

When aliens land on a planet new to them, they find a population obsessed with a virtual reality and uninterested in the intense beauty of the natural world around them.

A strange intergalactic force infiltrates the consciousness of a modern Earthling, prompting meditations on the role of the human, the loneliness of life, and the greater unknown.

After being exiled to the desert, Bilqis, a pregnant scientist has the opportunity to escape the harsh conditions she's been living in, provided that she is willing to sacrifice part of herself. Torn between physical and spiritual survival, Bilqis, a pregnant scientist must confront her inner turmoil before her child is forced to suffer the consequences.

In this metafiction, the many lives of an unnamed man are scrutinized as he passes through millennia.

In a world where there is no smell, taste, pain, death, or digestion, the people are left hungering for one thing: love.

In an austere farmstead on the distant planet O, two lovers must find a way to fool their fellow citizens and satisfy a complicated series of marriage rites so that their forbidden love may last forever.