In deep space, a crew of humans and artificial intelligence deliberate on whether or not to change course so as to preserve the life of an innocent-presenting alien-being.

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 scientist collecting samples on Titan finds the expedition to be beyond her wildest dreams—and her darkest nightmares—when she connects with disembodied alien life. Their strange communications take on new urgency when both their lives are at risk.

An older Indian man recounts his story of "alien" encounters on Mars during Saturday tea.

A catalog of the tools different alien species use to read and write, leading to fundamental questions about what it means to make patterns of knowledge against the noise of the universe.

After discovering the remnants left by an extinct extraterrestrial species, a Jesuit astrophysicist asks the spirit of Father Loyola what there’s left for a Christian like him to believe.

In the near future, a young mother leaves behind a book for her daughter before she embarks on her space journey to the outer solar system in an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial creatures. Sections from her book are interspersed with her husband's verbal recollections of their love story, which he addresses to their young daughter.

When an alien spaceship lands on Earth in need of help, leaders of countries around the world help and house them, causing tension between humans and these costly guests.

In the very far future, a woman takes the chance to leave Earth and look for a new planet to settle on. However, each time she's awoken from her stasis pod, she's confronted with the choice of whether to settle on an increasingly unfamiliar and strange planet that will force her to adapt into something non-human or whether to go back to sleep for thousands of years more, hoping for something better.

A newscaster recently arrived in space receives ominous advice from a jaded engineer: whatever you do, leave space because getting attracted to aliens will be the death of us all.