A complex web of human relationships is presented in the form of an algebraic expression.

A human and a giant millipede learn to overcome their differences as they flee a warzone together.

Vignettes of a number of relationships, most of them troubled, are glimpsed through the descriptions of creatures in this bestiary of the imaginary.

An alien race uses humans to host their parasitic offspring. After a human boy witnesses the birth of these parasites, he is horrified by the symbiotic agreement and realizes why the alien has nourished him so much better than his siblings all his life.

In the midst of an interplanetary war, two women meet an alien who is hoping to retrieve the body of his dead brother, whom he honors by consuming his remains.

In modern-day China, a cohort of wasps skilled in cartography establishes a new colony, exercising their suppressive rule over a local beehive. One anarchist bee makes inroads into the wasp colony, setting in motion a subversion of the wasp monarchy and a new, pioneering generation of anarchist bees.

Ancient, doomed Moggadeet struggles to overcome the deadly cold in order to save their beloved Lillyloo from the harsh, alien world they inhabit together.

A simulacron, who serves as a representative of an alien species, speaks with the US Secretary of Science about their wish to purchase the planet Jupiter. While the Secretary worries about stirring up conflict between the simulacron and another species, the simulacron assures him that no harm will come to Earth, and the two eventually reach an agreement.

A creature driven to extinction by human violence tries to survive and exact vengeance for his fallen people.

A scientist travels to a space station orbiting Jupiter to try and figure out why the technology linking a human to a rudimentary, genetically-engineered form on the planet's surface. Over the course of his stay, he tries to figure out the nature of the relationship between the minds of the Jovian being and the human.